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I hope this doesn't sound catty, but is there a demand for that? I know that people like to have video/photos of birth, but generally (at least in all the situations I've been in) the one taking the pictures/videos is a family member and in the 'intimate circle' of the woman giving birth.
Granted, I'm on the 'nursing' side of the birthing business (just a nursing student, but in hospitals alot), and I've never seen a professional photographer in the room during births. I suppose home births may be different, but I've never heard of such a thing.
I would suggest possibly talking to some midwives or doulas in your area and drop your name and your card and suggest that if they have anyone who's interested to give you a call.
As far as a "portfolio", I agree that not only would others probably not want to see up close vaginal birth of a stranger, but I don't know that many people would allow their own up-close vaginal birth to be shared with strangers. But that doesn't mean that you can't take other photos--mom and baby, dad & baby, medical staff around the bed, etc, to show.
If you've not been in a birthing suite or around alot of real-life births, here are some issues you may have with logistics:
1) Birthing can take place in the course of a few minutes, several hours, or several days. Do you have the flexibility to schedule yourself to where you can go in to the hospital when mom goes and have the possibility of sitting around for 23 hours waiting for the bundle of joy to make its way into the world?
2) Birth, in many hospitals, is a crowded situation, even with just mom in the bed, dad by the bed, and Dr's and nurses. There's alot of tight spaces, and the room is generally dark (soothing to mom). You'd have to probably use a flash which may be a bit...er...sensory overload to mom and honestly a bit distracting to nurses/Dr's. And depending on if the birth is "routine" or "Not routine", you may not be able to weasel your way close enough to get anything but a shot that is 3/4 Dr's shoulder/back and 1/4 mom's leg. Even when I assisted a woman giving birth a few months ago, there were 4 people in the room including mom and you could not WALK in there the space was so tight
4) What would you do as far as these situations:
--birth planned for normal, but things turn and emergency C-section needs to be done. You won't be allowed in the OR (or even in the room if they do it en-suite)
--birth planned for normal vaginal, something goes wrong and there is an emergent situation (cord compression or god forbid stillbirth or blue baby, etc) These things come on VERY quickly and aren't always known beforehand. Oftentimes, the baby is 3/4 out of the canal before they realize that there's a cord around the neck, or it's blue, or it's in distress. At that point, about a billion people rush in and there isn't room for the nurses, much less a photographer, nurses, pediatrician, OB doctor and any other specialists that need to intervene in those situations.
When I've been involved in births, it's always even hetchy for me to be in the room because I'm "just" a student. Many women (and their families) are not too keen on strangers looking up their wahoo, you know. And babies aren't the only things that come out during birthing. You've got alot of poop and pee and vomit and blood....not the most flattering way to be remembered in most people's eyes. I just can't see there being a huge market for this, at least in the hospital-birth setting. I think the home-birthers would be much more open to it since they tend to be the type that (more often than hospital birthers) like 10,000,000 people around and don't care if the Pizza man sees them pooping all over themselves while they're crouched on their knees on the bed, ass in the air, going through the 2nd stage of labour and cussing like a sailor and re-thinking their idea of 'natural birth'.
I'd talk with midwives, OB nurses, and doulas. You can find the midwives/doulas in the phonebook. Get some ideas from them. If you're just getting started, tell them that and just ask them to run the idea by their patients and see if any of them have an interest in it so that way you know what you're looking at. Also remember that birthing doesn't always take place on schedule, and if you're contracting with someone to film their birth, you better be ready to hop out of bed at 4am and drive to their house with the possiblity of sitting around til next Tuesday waiting on Junior to decide when he wants to come out (and he will on his own damn time, thankyouverymuch :) )
Also, once you get your ducks in a row, I'm sure local hospitals and birthing centers wouldn't mind you putting up flyers on the 'community bulletin boards' they have there (at least we have them in our hospitals here). As always, get permission :)
Good luck--that sounds terribly interesting, I must say. Although I love watching births more than anything and participating is even more fun. That's where it stops for me---after seeing a live birth and being within 1 foot of a baby coming into the world, I made up my mind that NO WAY NO HOW would my body go through THAT rigamarole. Uh-uh!!!
:) :hi:
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