When a woman gives birth, it can sometimes feel like it's her against the world. There might be other people in the room — doctors, nurses, and family — as the mom-to-be struggles through contractions, but that doesn't mean that childbirth can't be lonely. For Hannah Bower, her 25-hour labor was a long and painful process, but the new mom never felt alone because of the endless support of her husband, Josh. In a series of powerful and emotional birth photos, photographer Rachel Veltri captured the new parents as Josh worked to help Hannah through both the joy and the pain of waiting for baby. Now, they're sharing these powerful photos to show the incredible power of laboring as a team.
Hannah's journey started on June 20, when her cramping started to turn into contractions and she knew that her baby was on their way.
As first reported by Love What Matters, Hannah told us that at around 10 p.m. she started to feel intense contractions, but she wasn't quite ready to make her way to the hospital.
"I hopped in the shower, dimmed the lights, turned on praise and worship music, and labored here for probably an hour until the water got cold," Hannah said. "It was one of the most euphoric feelings being one with the contractions and connecting with my baby. We were in it together."
The couple then took a walk around their neighborhood waiting for their birth photographer, Rachel, to arrive, and when Hannah's contractions started coming three minutes apart, they were lasting about 80 seconds long each time. "I had to lean into my husband for support and comfort as they were really taking my breath away," she said.
Though in tremendous pain, Hannah tried to focus on the beauty of the night. "The stars were so unbelievably bright that night," she recalled. "Our last walk together before our lives were about to change forever."
Hannah and Josh headed to the hospital, but it was then that things started to get a little discouraging.
According to Hannah, one of the nurses on the night shift told her a story which brought her down. "The nurse had spoken of her daughter-in-law's birth and how her baby died while I was laboring," she said. "It broke me emotionally. We decided to go home after around five hours so I could labor feeling safe as I knew fear/adrenaline closes your cervix."
About 5 a.m., the couple returned home so that Hannah could labor in privacy. The mom says she labored for another six hours, but by noon the next day her contractions were so intense she had to go back to the hospital.
"The car ride to the hospital was excruciatingly painful," she recalled. "I couldn’t find a position that didn’t feel like I was tearing in half."
"Once we got to the hospital and in the elevator, I broke down sobbing as I was so emotionally and physically done and terrified of having another discouraging experience," Hannah says. Or worse, "if that same nurse was still there."
But this time things were different. Hannah and Josh had an "angel" of a nurse -- and she was officially five centimeters dilated.
"I was so relieved," Hannah said. But the mom would quickly learn that the waters were still murky ahead. After another two-and-a-half hours of labor, Hannah wasn't any closer to giving birth.
"I was doing everything i knew was right: relaxed, opened jaw, breathing down and through the contractions. Doing everything to increase my oxytocin levels. I just didn’t understand why I wasn’t progressing," she said.
Hannah worried that she wouldn't have the strength to deliver her baby if she had to keep waiting for much longer.
"It wasn’t worth risking his safety," Hannah says. "So I lowered my pride on wanting an unmedicated birth and we made the decision to get the epidural."
The decision wasn't easy for the mom. She says that she started to tear up and tried to apologize to her husband "for being a failure."
"He just lifted my chin, kissed me and told me that it was the best decision and he was so incredibly proud of me," Hannah says. These were "the words I needed."
Hannah didn't start dilating until four hours later, a mark that she took as a personal failure.
"[I] ended up needing my waters broken and pitocin," Hannah recalled. "I can’t describe the feeling of disappointment I had knowing my body wasn’t doing what it needed, what it was designed to do."
She said that she started to doubt herself. My baby was breech for a reason, she remembered thinking, or My hips may be too narrow.
Finally, Hannah had to admit to herself that it wasn't looking hopeful for her to deliver vaginally. "At this point my husband grabbed my hand and we just got in prayer praying over my body," she remembered. "He told me I needed to focus on the right things. My husband was my rock, my foundation, and got my mind where it needed to be. I am so thankful for this man. He’s truly my king."
In total, Hannah was in labor for 25-and-a-half hours and by 12:41 a.m., she delivered her son the way she had wanted to.
Hannah was able to deliver her son vaginally, as she had originally intended. And she gushes about the moment her life changed for the better. "My lil' Jaden was born June 22 at 12:41 a.m.," Hannah says. "It was the most incredible moment in my life and nothing mattered but him."
The mom describes that it was "the most pure and the most powerful love ignited when he was laying on my chest. There are no words for that moment and all was perfect."
According to Hannah and Josh's birth photographer, Rachel, she was deeply touched by how connected Josh and Hannah were through their son's birth.
Rachel explained to Love What Matters that though she had been a photographer for three years, she had never photographed a birth before. Hannah and Rachel did two maternity sessions before Hannah went into labor, but the day of the main event touched Rachel's heart. "I don’t have many words to describe what an honor that has been for me," she said.
"Witnessing the moments before, during, and immediately after Hannah and Joshton delivered their son was all encompassing for me," she continued. "They were the most graceful teammates I’ve ever seen working together."
"I was most impressed by how gently Josh loved on Hannah during her whole labor — when she felt discouraged he was there to lift her, when she felt pain he was there to relieve her," Rachel added. "The amount of poise that man displayed absolutely will be found in their son Jaden one day."
And Rachel said that seeing the way Josh cared for Hannah made her appreciate her own family more. "The first thing I did when I got home from this life-changing experience was go straight to my kids and hold them close to my heart, kissing every square inch of their bodies," she recalled.
The way Hannah sees it, she says that "it was a labor that brought my family even closer together."
"It was the most intimate experience laboring with my husband and birthing my son," she said. "I am so incredibly blessed. We were a team. A family."
