Everything currently hanging in the birth center was taken by me. Kind of intimidating to print up four of your own shots into 40x60 triptychs. We've been meeting with birth photographers to get their stuff to hang up outside the birth rooms. We get decor, they get advertising, the word gets out, everybody's happy. We had about nine doulas just sorta park and hang out for three hours. Initially it annoyed me and then I realized that (1) they're cruising for customers (2) they don't get to hang out and gab very often. So now we're thinking of putting together some sort of "meet the doula" event every couple-three months because it costs us nothing, gets people into the facility and increases the likelihood that our clients hire doulas, which reduces our transport rates precipitously and takes a big chunk out of the amount of hand-holding my wife has to do. The doula pope showed up Saturday. The pros were gobsmacked. Her husband sat in our lobby talking to no one and reading a book for half an hour. It was awesome.
Those are a couple of positive-sum business ideas. And those photos are great, what I was able to glean. How expensive are semi-large triptychs? And are there many birthing rooms in the birthing center?
Cheap. But also kind of crap. Like $55 plus $20 shipping. So... if you want to have a birth suite, there are certain requirements for size. There are other requirements for layout. There are still more requirements for access to bathrooms. There are still more requirements for access to gurneys. All of these are argued out and debated by no less than three agencies - the local jurisdiction, the planning department at the Department of Health and the licensing department at the Department of Health (who do not necessarily agree with each other). Further, there are requirements as far as ancillary support for those suites. Like you need a laundry room big enough that all your clean shit goes on one side and all your dirty shit on the other. Then, of course, you need facilities for the families, lockers for your employees (!) and a kitchenette which has its own happy fun time regs. And since you've got professionals around, and since you're hoping to attract others to pay you rent, you need a couple-three offices. And none of this is going to work without reception. So. If you want, say, two birth suites? Despite the fact that they're under 400sqft each, you've still got 2200sqft worth of facility upon which to pay rent and triple net every month.