Uncensored Hospital Birth at Johnson Memorial Health.

It was 1:56am on October 15 when I got Nash's call. I jumped out of bed and grabbed the long socks, leggings, and sweater I had set out the night before. I kissed Kev goodbye and jumped in the car for the hour drive to the hospital.

I've had the pleasure of photographing multiple births at Johnson Memorial and had no trouble finding room #10 in the maternity ward. I waved at the nurses as I went by the nurses station and softly knocked on the door to Mackenzie's room. For a woman that had been laboring over 13 hours already, she greeted me with a huge smile. She was cracking jokes with the nurses as she prepared to start pushing. I laid by gear down, checked my light, and started snapping their story.

With Nash on one side and an amazing nurse on the other, Mackenzie started pushing as I watched the computer display her increasing TOCO reading. For 2 hours, Mackenzie screamed through pushes. At 4:56am, the nurses brought in the delivery cart.

There is something amazing that happens at every birth I photograph, right before the baby's head passes the pelvic bone and right after Mom exclaims "I CAN'T DO THIS." She find a strength she never knew she had, a kind of strength that I believe every woman possesses. And in a final push, she embodies that strength and empowers her body to make way for her creation.

At 5:07am Emery Sloane was born.