Meet Paulina Splechta | On-Call Birth Photographer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Paulina Splechta and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Paulina, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?

I am the 4th and youngest child in my family, always observing the chaos of growing up in a big family. My dad was the photographer of the family, capturing ‘behind the scenes’ photos, such as the family interacting at the dinner table or walking in the park/on vacation and when I saw the way the photos turned out, literally capturing and freezing a moment in time, where you would instantly travel back to that moment and remember the sound of the room, the taste of the food, the smell of the environment, I was hooked.

Growing up as the youngest, I was always being told what to do by my parents and older siblings, and that drove my determination to become my own boss. Not only my own boss of my company, but my own boss in life, so I could dictate the narrative.

That, as well as the entrepreneurial, fiery spirit passed down to me from my Grandmother who ran her own business in the 1930s, it was the perfect formula for me starting my own business, on the mission to create stunning art and be my own boss.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.

My art has evolved incredibly over the years. It has been a journey of self-discovery and my art is deeply rooted in advocating for women’s rights in healthcare.

After dabbling in various photography genres, almost 9 years ago I was invited to a birth and photographed the “birth” moment of my photography model’s baby. This profound experience unearthed my love for capturing documentary style photography. As I documented more births, I became aware of the challenges and statistics of giving birth in today’s world, specifically in America and where I work in South Florida.

America, as a developed country, has some of the worst statistics of maternal and fetal mortality rates of any other developed country worldwide. South Florida hospitals have some of the worst trauma in childbirth – not limited to physical trauma. The trauma I was most surprised by not only in my role as a Birth Photographer but more intimately as a mother myself who experienced two births firsthand: emotional and psychological trauma resulting from my experiences of childbirth.

When I first started photographing birth, I did not realize two things: that people could have more positive birth experiences (with less physical and/or emotional trauma) depending on which hospital or medical care provider they chose and secondly, that I would not want to work in every hospital in south Florida as a preference to not want to photograph that trauma.

It was pretty mind blowing to realize that underneath the top layer of being an artist (photographer) was not only a layer of me being a driven entrepreneur but the most surprising reveal of all to me was that I am a woman’s advocate and that I desired to connect the three corners as one: artist, entrepreneur, women’s advocate.

An advocate for women to feel empowered and to feel the gravity of their voice during the vulnerable experience of childbirth, instead of feeling voice-less because their medical team made them feel small.

I shifted my marketing and instead of featuring birth photos I felt were beautiful, I started sharing my artwork along with my writing on various platforms featuring facilities, midwives and doulas that were the epitome of the support women need in childbirth. I figured, everyone on this planet knows that Doctors deliver babies, because movies and tv have educated the world about it. But what the world needs is to learn that Midwives have always been around (yes, Midwives in hospitals too) that are fully competent medically and help families birth their babies in a supported way that will overturn the high trauma statistics of our country into a future where it is safer to birth in America.

So with time, my work has evolved to not only be photography of birth, but also advocacy for women to have louder voices in their options.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
When it comes to enjoying my city, Boca Raton, FL, I am always at heart a big foodie and movie fan! While Boca definitely has lots of palm trees and sunny beaches, generally plenty to do outdoors, I absolutely love a great restaurant and movie to make my day. I would absolutely hit up a noodle bar in Boca – Ramen Lab Eatery, for some of the best ramen in Boca and after enjoy a movie at iPic Theaters in Mizner Park. Best chill night.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I absolutely have to give a major shoutout to my amazing husband. From the day I met him, before I even started my own business, he always believed and supported in my potential. The space he gave me to spread my wings and create any business I could dream up, is the kind of spouse-support a person can only hope for! Over the years, my business evolved into incorporating On-Call time, which, if you guessed it, works exactly the same way as an Emergency Room Doctor who is on-call 24 hours a day 7 days a week for the Hospital and has to drop everything at a moments notice when they are paged into the Emergency Room. Working on-call 12 months a year will put a major strain on any person and especially couple. While it is incredibly fulfilling work, it is very difficult to do being married and having kids. You miss holidays and birthdays, dinners, and no one ever knows when you’ll be back home, inevitably to sleep off the long shift at work. My husband has not only stuck through it all, he’s been the best super dad & supportive partner every step of the way. I literally could not do this work without him.

Website: www.paulinasplechta.com

Instagram: psplechta_birthphotography

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulina-splechta-093983147/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/paulinasplechta