Giving birth is one of the most life-changing experiences a woman can go through.
Welcoming a child into the world — whether it's your first or your fifth — can be miraculous, terrifying, stressful, exuberant, painful, and blissful. Of course, the experience varies from woman to woman, and every mom can feel one or none or a mix of these emotions.
It's the job of a birth photographer to commemorate these important moments and collect the images into a series that parents can look back on for years to come. But in capturing a labor and delivery (and obviously focusing on the parents and baby), it can be easy to overlook the people behind the scenes who make it all possible.
That's not the case for Katie Lacer, the photographer who shared a gorgeous image of a nurse helping a postpartum mom. The picture has since gone massively viral.
Scroll through to read more about the background of this beautiful photo and the incredible response to it, and to see several more of Katie's photos of amazing nurses in action!
Thumbnail Photo: Momma KT Shoots
The beautiful black-and-white photo above was taken by Katie, who is a mom of three herself.
Katie explained the circumstances of the photo to Scary Mommy:
I just happened to be in the right place at the right time. I looked over, I see her sitting there, the nurse in front of her and I hit the shutter. Once I got home, I realized that it could be any Mom, with any nurse, in any hospital – the anonymity of it really resonated with me. It’s another part of her birth story, something that doesn’t get told very often.
The photo depicts Dawn Moravec, RN at Clark Memorial Hospital, helping new mom Jennifer Hawkins in the bathroom postpartum.
The image immediately resonated with Jill Krause, who runs the popular blog Baby Rabies.
Jill shared the image alongside her own ode to the nurses who helped her after delivering each of her babies over the years:
I’ll never forget the faces of the nurses who followed me into the bathroom after delivering each baby. That moment when I was so vulnerable, so tired, scared, shaky.
My swollen belly deflating, and my modesty long gone.
They treated me with such kindness and dignity.
For me, these have been moments of empowerment and confirmation that I have a real village to help me, even if just for that little bit of time in a bathroom, on a toilet, while a kind nurse shows me how to put an ice pad on my mesh undies.
This photo by my friend MommaKT Shoots just takes me right back. Like, I can smell the Dermaplast.
Let's hear it for the nurses and the doulas and anyone else who shows us how to make ice pad underwear (or helps with that first shower post c-section!)
Jill's post quickly went viral, with over 82,000 reactions, 5,000 comments, and 48,000 shares at last count.
Katie has shared many other photos of the amazing nurses who help laboring and postpartum moms throughout the entire birthing and post-birth process.
The response to Katie's photo and Jill's accompanying post has been truly remarkable.
Thousands of moms have come forward with their own birth stories, giving thanks to the nurses who helped them.
One commenter named Lauren Self shared the touching story of her nurses helping her through her stressful rainbow baby delivery:
I loved my L&D nurses. My husband and I lost our daughter at 23 weeks two years ago, and delivered our rainbow baby boy at the same hospital this May. All the nurses I had knew our history, and when my son was born he wasn’t breathing and was immediately taken away to the NICU (I held him for the first time 30 minutes after he was born, maybe for 2 minutes tops) and I just could not stop sobbing.
My nurses cried with me. They rubbed my hair and my back and did everything they possibly could to get me mobile and up to see my sweet boy in the NICU. They brought me pictures of him and were overall just amazing.
Another mom named Leigh Kathleen wrote:
When I was pushing, I’ll never forget pulling my face away from my nurse’s chest to see her scrub top SOAKED with my sweat and tears.
I was like, "Oh my god I'm so sorry!" And she went, "Baby, this is life all over my shirt. Nowhere else I'd rather be. Now let's get that baby out." I loved her. I can't wait to be a nurse.
It's so important to celebrate the nurses, doulas, and behind-the-scenes people who make successful births possible.
Please SHARE these stunning photos with your friends and family on Facebook!
