Labor of Love

Photos and Writing by Abbi Gobel

It took her two years to get pregnant. The day the test read positive changed their lives forever. Her pregnancy was beautiful. She was surrounded by her family and friends offering their deepest support. Her husband stayed by her side. He got her ice cream at midnight, and held her hand through it all. At the end of May was the day. She was coming. After a 4am ride to the hospital and the anxiety building it was finally time to push. She pushed and pushed but she wasn’t coming out. The babies heart rate dropped, causing the doctors to act quickly. They rolled her into an operating room and cut her abdomen open. The baby was stuck in the birth canal and hadn’t been getting oxygen. They cut her open even wider, pulling the baby out. The baby was blue, no cry, just limp. As she watched her husbands face turn green, she broke out in hysterics on the table. She screamed “Why don’t I hear crying, why don’t I hear crying.” After 30 seconds of panic she heard the first cry from her new baby girl. As her husband went with the doctors to the neonatal intensive care unit, she lay open on a table bleeding from internal injury. They had cut her bladder in the process to save her baby. What was supposed to be a simple procedure now turned into a urgent situation. Without her husband in the room doctors worked for hours to stop her bleeding. Her husband returned to her room to find her not there. Doctors then informed him of the complications. In a fit of emotion he waited for his wife in a surgery while watching doctors save his daughters life. Her surgery ended and she returned to her hospital room. She held her baby girl for the first time. These photos are a collection of their life after this traumatic event. The physical and emotional turmoil is seen as a privileged because their lives now feature a strong and beautiful baby girl named Eloise