Pittsburgh Born Birth Photography & Doula Services

04/08/2025

Miss us?! You can still hang with us! Book your spring mini with Kate! THIS weekend!

03/06/2024

Pure * Bliss *

02/16/2024

What does a birth film look like with us? We don't share our birth films too often because they take a while to upload and for privacy reasons. This one was too fun not to share with it being a full blown New Years Eve birth party! Enjoy link in the comments

02/14/2024

**Attention*** We have a big value we are running right now over here at Pittsburgh Born! We've never done anything like this before. Right now anyone who has Feb-April due dates get a complimentary mini newborn session at your home during your postpartum visit when you hire us for our Birth Photography + Doula package. We have some end of winter-spring dates we'd really love to fill. So please share around to anyone who is expecting!

02/06/2024

2023 end of year blog is live! ✌️

A wrap-up of the 2023 birth year. See highlights some of the births Pittsburgh Born attended.

02/05/2024

I love capturing movement in labor in creative ways. Sometimes we need to break the "rules" we learn about photography to create unique shots.

02/01/2024

I’m going to pivot a bit today with a steamy post! Sure, I’m happy to photograph your maternity session in a pretty green field but there are so many other options out there!!! I love how this mom of now 4 has always been open and ready for everything. She approached us this time to do a fun bo***ir shoot. So if you have a bun in the oven here in the winter when the trees are bare and it’s cold outside I promise we can find something unique to do inside ❤️❤️❤️

***irshoot ***irmaternity

01/31/2024

Today, I want to feature one of my favorite births of last year.

Supporting a family who went through the loss of their first child can be so heavy. I aimed to capture this birth with love, paying close attention to little details. It was a gorgeous day on the birth of their second child with a 10 out of 10 healthcare team that particular shift, and some fun extra wishes were granted. I only get a few opportunities to photograph babies attached to the placenta. Still, when I do, it definitely puts me in a fantastic mood for the day! It was an honor to document and film this story.

01/29/2024

I will take over our socials this week as Kate and I (Jess) have decided to put more effort into our business pages for a short time. I thought I'd start off this week and the end of this month with a bit of re-introduction to who we are.

Kate and I started Pittsburgh Born in 2018 and have been rolling steadily ever since. We did many births together in our first year to create our business's style and birth philosophy. I really cherish that first year together and our shared experiences. I think sometimes we miss attending births together, but we also really like not being on-call 24/7-365 days of the year. That is one thing that sets our partnership apart from many doulas or birth photographers in our area. You are hiring two experienced doulas and birth photographers with a seamless style and philosophy. One may only attend your birth, but if your labor went very long, you know your backup very well. Kate and I attend all our consultations and prenatal appointments together. All the questions, concerns, and conversations throughout your pregnancy are through both of us and not just 1 primary person. You should know us equally when your birth happens.

We are probably too silly. It's just our personality. So, if you are searching for a soft-spoken doula who smells like lavender, we may not be the fit you're looking for… We both approach labor not as a day in the spa where you need to be coddled but as a friend you can look in the eye and trust that someone has your back. We are there to make your partner the best support they can be.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the first birth I (Jess) ever attended as a doula. I don't know how I talked my friends Ellen and Caleb into letting me attend the birth of their firstborn. Still, I am forever grateful for their open-mindedness. I hope I was an asset to their birth team. I think I was. I love snowboarding, target archery occasionally (when I'm not frustrated at getting good scores), taking elaborate RV trips across the US, traveling in general, and finding food trucks and stalking them on Instagram. I am a really small-town girl, and my soul feels most at peace in the West in the middle of nowhere. I'd be a music teacher if I wasn't a photographer/doula. I went to college for it and will always have an undying love and passion for orchestral and metal music! You would want me on your music trivia night team.

Kate is a Pennsylvania native. You can tell she is really cool because she's on a roller derby team! I've also always thought she has the coolest tattoos. Kate loves food as much as I do because we meet for food whenever we need to get together. Kate loves camping and enjoys the great outdoors as well. She's a fierce feminist willing to stand up for her values. She's also someone who would help breastfeed a stranger's baby… because she literally has!

PS: It's obvious how weird we are based on how this is the most up-to-date photo of us together 😂! There are things people do when you're drunk or high that are bizarre but then it's hard to explain and justify this behavior when we were clearly neither... 😂😂😂

01/25/2024

The sweet personal tiny details of home birth bring me so much joy.