A series of incredible photographs have captured the moment a mother gave birth in a hospital corridor – after she arrived too late to make it to a bed.
Kansas-based mum-of-six Jesica Hogan welcomed baby Maxwell Alexander moments after arriving at hospital in the early hours of the morning.
Birth photographer Tammy Karin, of Little Leapling Photography, was there to capture the dramatic arrival on camera.
‘Maxwell’s pregnancy was much like his delivery, not at all what I thought it would be. From the very beginning it was unpredictable to say the least,’ Jesica wrote in a blog post on Tammy’s website.
Jesica had been feeling contractions for days – with no sign of the baby – prior to Maxwell’s speedy birth.
But with her unborn son her sixth child, Jessica was sure she would know when it was time for him to arrive.
‘I should know these things, right?’ she wrote. ‘The pain wasn’t troubling me too badly, I kept telling myself I would just “know” if this was the real thing.’
But then Jesica woke at night to a ‘strange, long contraction’.
‘It wasn’t incredibly painful, but it caused me enough discomfort that I felt around in the dark for my husband and said “Travis, I think this is it”,’ she recalled.
Then she felt her water break.
‘I scurried off the edge of the bed, hurried to the bathroom in shock, and said “oh god, we’re not going to make it. We are going to have this baby at home”.’ Jesica wrote.
‘The contraction went from uncomfortable to painful in a blink. I had somehow managed to make it to the bathroom before my ruptured waters made any mess, something I’m admittedly still pretty proud of and mystified by. But standing in the bathroom it felt like that contraction that woke me was never going to end.
‘My husband assured me we would make it to the hospital. I cried that there was no way I could move, but he said he would get me to the car.
‘He disappeared for what felt like an eternity, but in reality was maybe 3-5 minutes. In that time my contractions were on top of each other, I was certain things were moving fast.
‘I wasn’t sure just how fast, but I knew we did not have long.’
With her husband extremely calm, the pair drove to hospital with Jesica on her knees in the car.
‘I could feel the baby moving down quickly with each contraction,’ she explained.
‘Luckily for us, it was 3am and the roads were empty our entire drive.’
But as the couple neared the last turn, Jesica knew the baby was coming.
After her hubby pulled up in front of Emergency, she felt unable to move.
‘I tried to maneuver out of the passenger seat so I could somehow walk inside in the few seconds break I had between contractions,’ Jescia recalled.
‘It was then I saw someone running across the parking lot and I thought “oh god, I’m going to give birth in front of a stranger”.’
But thankfully that someone was Tammy – Jesica’s birth photographer who’d been alerted to the arrival earlier.
Jesica then attempted to make it into the hospital.
‘I made it just past the second set of automatic doors, into the next hall which luckily was not carpeted like the one we had just stepped out of.
‘I know at this point I said something to the effect of, “oh god, he’s here”.
‘I then started to take my pants off because I could feel my body pushing the baby’s head out,’ she recalled.
‘I reached down and could feel his head crowning with my hand. I looked at my husband and said, “Travis catch him!”
‘Without any hesitation he did just that as I felt my body involuntarily pushing his head the rest of the way out. At that moment Tammy began snapping away!’
What happened next, Jesica said, remains a blur but nurses rushed to her side as baby Maxwell was born.
‘Our son took a moment to cry, then he went very calm,’ Jesica wrote.
‘As it turns out, this is just his demeanor so far. It was a bit scary only because he was so incredibly bruised from his entrance, but then he let out several more cries as they rubbed his back.’
It was only then that Jesica was taken to the delivery ward.
‘I don’t remember the ride up there as I was still a bit in shock from it all. I was also totally in love with the little person laying on me, and even more completely in love with my husband who didn’t miss a beat and kept his word that we would, in fact, make it to the hospital. Even if it was only a few steps inside!’ Jesica wrote.
‘It was my craziest birth, but also, the most perfect. It was not at all what I had planned, but it ended without any intervention, with a healthy baby, and amazing support people by our sides. It was beautiful and I’ll forever love every memory of it.’
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