Medical Photographer Documents Dramatic Increase in Stillbirth Cases
Professional Observation from a Medical Photographer
I have been a volunteer birth/new-born/stillborn photographer almost 8 years in one Australian state. Before covid I photographed maybe 2-3 stillborns a week across the entire state. Within first 3 months of mandates I noticed an uprise in cancellations of newborn photoshoots due to miscarriages. Still births gradually increased. About 8 months after the rollout in one week in one hospital I photo’d 8 stillborns.
Between April 2021 and April 22 I was getting 15 to 20 calls a week! I couldn’t keep up with the workload. Before covid I averaged about 70 a year but in this last year to April I did almost 400.
Since everyone has stopped getting the vaccine still births have gone back to around 1 or 2 a week for me.
However I have noticed a lot more mums saying they bled in pregnancy and I am photographing a lot more babies delivered early. I know I’m not alone in my field and this is happening countrywide.
I would like to put a call out to all still born/birth photographers and midwives to come forward and share their stories.
