Decreasing Maternal Mortality with Community Fund Contributions

Just checking in to share an update about the Birth Photography Community Fund — and talk about how you’re also helping me implement my goals for decreasing maternal mortality! We’re currently at about $200 out of my $500 goal, which means we’re 40% of the way to me offering my services free of charge to another mother in my local community.

If this is the first time you’re hearing about my Community Fund, let me tell you a bit about it, and what my long term goals are! If you’re already familiar with it, please skip ahead.

Every photography business is immediately faced with the challenge of how to set their pricing and rates. Some photographers, like family portrait photographers, set their rates hourly. Others that do events charge hourly for shorter events, with a day rate for longer events. As a birth photographer, I’m a little bit of both - I’m taking portraits during one of the most special events of your life, and while it’s impossible to know if I’m going to spend 4 hours or 24 hours at your birth, I tend to take hundreds of photos and spend 3-5 full days culling those images down to a manageable number & editing them to a cohesive final album. And while I believe in people charging what they’re worth, I know money is a barrier that quickly makes even a straightforward 1-hour family photo shoot financially inaccessible for many people when they also have to spend hundreds of dollars on matching outfits.

I believe all moms deserve to have photos to remember the day they welcomed their little ones into the world. When I offered a limited model call in December, I was VERY excited that it meant my services would be available to anyone who was quick enough to reserve a spot in my calendar, and that the financial barrier was not a factor for them. But eventually I need to start charging for my services, because my camera gear isn’t going to pay itself off - but the thought of no longer offering free services didn’t sit right with me. Meanwhile, if I don’t charge enough, some potential clients won’t even consider hiring someone who is under-charging for their services, or they’ll insist on including a substantial tip to make up the difference for what they feel I should have been charging for my services, and I struggle to accept that kind of generosity without being fussy about it and insisting they gave me too much. (It isn’t lost on me that my desire to be a business owner might be a bit ironic if I am so aggressively opposed to taking people’s money.)

I asked for some advice from a peer in the birth work industry who is also an upcoming birth client (any day now!) and she pointed out that offering a lot of unpaid work also puts me at risk for burnout. That’s valid. I wanted to make this sustainable so I can do it long term, so I should figure out some kind of plan for how I could implement unpaid services into my business model in a way that is sustainable, and also facilitates me paying off my very expensive camera gear.

I figured, why not let their generosity help the clients who can’t afford to pay, by paying it forward? While I struggle to accept the generosity and kindness of my happy clients, I’m DELIGHTED at the idea that their generosity and kindness can be redirected to a deserving mom in my local community who otherwise would not be able to access my services due to the financial barrier.

So, here we are.

I put it out into the universe that for every $500 set aside from tips and donations, I’ll take a free client. But I don’t want to stop there.
For how much I talk about maternal mortality being extremely important to me, I want to actually put my money where my mouth is.

I follow some incredible organizations on social media that are doing important work that is near and dear to my heart: decreasing maternal mortality, particularly for women of color. One of the charitable organizations I love that is doing this work is Partners In Health. If you haven’t heard about the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone, I recommend watching the videos about it by Vlogbrothers on YouTube, or reading about it on PIH’s website. And, while I remain committed to supporting them through my personal funds, I wanted to bring that aspect into my business model, and make regular charitable donations to organizations doing the work to decrease maternal mortality, while continuing to honor my commitment to offering my services free of charge to mothers right here at home.

So, as I was about to move those funds to my bank to make a payment on my credit card the other day… I decided now is actually a great time to use half of it to support the work of two midwives who are working tirelessly to decrease black maternal mortality, and expand access to maternity care, in Arkansas and Alabama respectfully — two of the states in the U.S. with outrageously high maternal mortality rates: Ujima Maternity Network in Conway, Arkansas, and The Birth Sanctuary in Gainesville Alabama. When I asked Ujima Maternity Network’s Nicolle S. Fletcher (side note: you can find her on Instagram at @ujimamaternity and @nurturingarrows - I’ve met her in person, and she’s super funny! Go follow her!!) if there was a Venmo account I could send a donation to, she sent me her mother’s Venmo info. And, midwife Stephanie Mitchell (find her at @doctor_midwife and @the.birth.sanctuary) operates Birth Sanctuary Gainesville, where I found her Venmo account info by exploring her business profile’s Instagram stories.

Your contributions to my community fund have not just gotten us 40% of the way to funding birth photography to a mother in my community here in Utah, but they’re also going to benefit mothers in two states hardest hit by the U.S. maternal mortality crisis.

If you have recommendations for other organizations dedicated to expanding access to maternity care and decreasing maternal mortality, whether that’s here in the States or on the other side of the globe, please send an email or DM about them!

Thank you so much for your continued support. I’ll check in with you again soon.