Born in a Pandemic

Alice Proujansky photographed her first birth when she was seven years old. “My parents gave me this little point-and-shoot camera that I photographed my sister’s birth with,” she says. “It was the first person I ever photographed.”

Now, Proujansky is a documentary photographer photographing stories of births and maternal health. When COVID-19 first hit New York City, where she lives, Proujansky wanted to capture birth during a pandemic. But in March and April 2020, hospitals and birth centers were restricting who was allowed to be in the delivery room with someone giving birth — for a short time, some New York City hospitals were barring everyone, even partners, and asking people to deliver alone.

Shut out of delivery rooms,...

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