About Picture This Birth
Maribel Orellana, CD(DONA) · Full-Spectrum Doula & Birth Photographer
Grounded, inclusive support and honest storytelling from someone who believes birth deserves both deep care and beautiful remembering.
How I approach the work
Presence, understanding, and respect for your path
I do not believe there is one right way to give birth, or one kind of family this work is for. I approach each family with curiosity, respect, and care for who they are, what they value, and the circumstances they bring with them. My goal is to understand what matters to you and support you in a way that fits your life and the birth in front of you.
Information matters, and so do your instincts. We can prepare thoughtfully, build strong preferences, and still leave room for those preferences to change when new information or circumstances arise. A positive birth experience is not the same thing as achieving one specific outcome.
What I want you to carry into birth is a stronger sense of your own voice. My role is to help you feel informed, prepared, and supported by someone who already knows you when the day comes.
Today, as a full-spectrum doula and birth photographer, I get to bring those two parts of me together: caring for the experience while preserving the story.
My story
Picture This Birth began long before it had a name
I have always been drawn to real-life storytelling. I come from a big Latino family where stories are how we connect, remember, and learn who we are. Photography became one of the ways I learned to preserve that, especially the ordinary expressions and relationships that can disappear if no one is paying attention.
Then motherhood changed the way I understood support. During my own pregnancy, uncertainty around birth led me to hire a doula. Experiencing what it felt like to have someone calm, familiar, and fully in my corner stayed with me. It shifted the way I saw birth: not only as something worth documenting, but as an experience that deserves thoughtful, steady care while it is happening.
Through Picture This Birth, I support families through pregnancy, birth, and the beginning of parenthood with care that is informed, personal, and deeply respectful.
What matters to me
The values behind the work
Your choices
My job is to help you understand options and make decisions that belong to you.
Your instincts
Preparation is not about memorizing a perfect plan. It is also about learning to notice what helps you feel safe, grounded, and connected to yourself.
Room to change
Preferences are meaningful, and changing your mind is not failure. Support should remain steady even when the path changes.
The experience, not just the outcome
A healthy outcome matters. So does how you were treated, whether you understood what was happening, and whether you felt part of the decisions.
Areas of experience & support
Prepared for the birth in front of you
Birth settings & paths
Hospital birth · birth center · home birth · planned cesarean · induction · VBAC · medicated and unmedicated birth
Comfort & preparation
Childbirth education · positioning · movement · massage · relaxation · TENS for labor · birth-preference planning
Early postpartum
Feeding education · pumping and milk storage · newborn basics · soothing · sibling transition
Pregnancy experiences
Pregnancy after infertility · hyperemesis gravidarum · gestational diabetes · pregnancy at 35+ / advanced maternal age
Full-spectrum support
Abortion · miscarriage and pregnancy loss · infant loss
My role is non-clinical. When a need is outside my scope, I help you identify the right licensed or specialized professional.
Training & continuing education
Compassionate and well-informed
- DONA International
- Spinning Babies
- Birth Becomes You · Birth Photography
- Breastfeed L.A. · Lactation Education
- TENS for Labor
- Caring for Clients Through Loss
- LEAARC Educational Standards
- ICEA
I continue to invest in education because families deserve support that is both compassionate and well-informed.
A bit more about me
This feels less like a service and more like a relationship
A love language?
Learning. Curiosity is how I show up — for you and for this work.
A good way to feel alive?
Travel. New places, new perspectives, and getting a little outside my comfort zone.
Real or perfect?
Real, every single time. Honesty matters more to me than a polished version of life.
Why birth?
Because birth contains almost everything I love in one room: real people, enormous feelings, unpredictability, and absolutely no one interested in posing for me. It asks me to stay present, observant, adaptable, and comfortable with whatever the moment becomes. No two births look or feel the same, and that is exactly what keeps me drawn to the work.
Let's connect