Labor

Amber Miller gave birth to her 2nd child, 7lb 13oz June, at 10:29pm last Sunday (1st image). Her doctor had cleared her to continue her normal activities during her 39-week pregnancy, which include jogging. although it did draw some stares. She would sometimes experience a random contraction, so she kept going on her latest run. “...I think just from running throughout the pregnancy, I’d usually get a contraction here or there anyway. But then, a few minutes after I finished, I started feeling the contractions and they were coming every 5 minutes. So I think we waited an hour or so just to kind of make sure it was real labor. They were pretty consistent at that point.” She and her husband grabbed a sandwich before heading to Central DuPage Hospital. She had completed the Chicago Marathon in 6hrs and 25min.

Elana Nightingale Dawson delivered her 1st child, 6.6lb Wilson (2nd image), at 6:58pm on July 27th. Then a recent graduate of Northwestern University, Elana began experiencing contractions earlier in the day during an important test. She was completing the multiple-choice section when she went into hard labor, but she didn't want to disturb the other test-takers. "The hardest part was going through a contraction and not moving. I just put my head in my hands and breathed. Hopefully everyone else just thought I was having a really tough time concentrating." At 4pm, with her contractions now 10 minutes apart, Elana finally finished her answers, grateful she had already completed the essay portion. She asked for permission to leave and walked across the street to Prentice Women’s Hospital, where her husband met her. She made it through (and later found that she had passed) the Illinois bar exam.

Those Chicago women are tough. In contrast, all Copenhagen resident Lisa had to do was make her way from home to the hospital 1.5km away. The contractions were 6 minutes apart en route, but she made it to the labor ward in plenty of time to deliver baby Viggo (3rd image)...by bicycle (more photos by her husband John here).