- The birth of Jackie Kunzelman's baby was brought forward a couple weeks due to health concerns.
- The mom-to-be kicked herself for not having done her planned maternity photoshoot beforehand.
- She wound up doing the glamorous pictures from her hospital room — just hours before the delivery.
Jackie Kunzelman knew she was cutting it close by leaving her maternity photo shoot until the last few weeks of her pregnancy. However, she was having trouble scheduling it because of her busy work schedule as a medical student.
The other factor was the unexpected delay in the delivery of the flamboyant maternity gown she'd ordered for the occasion from Etsy.
"It was running late," Kunzelman said, adding "I was tracking it every day, but I figured I had a couple more weeks."
The original idea, she said, was to do an atmospheric maternity shoot in the desert near her home in Arizona. Her mom, Lori, and her sister, Lexi Pratt — both professional photographers — were in charge of the pictures.
But Kunzelman's body had other plans. She noticed that her hands and feet became swollen during the 36th week of her pregnancy. The obstetrician advised her to go to the hospital.
Kunzelman said that her OB wanted to hold off on the delivery until the baby could be considered full-term
A number of tests showed that she had preeclampsia — the potentially dangerous complication of pregnancy characterized by high blood pressure.
"My OB wanted to induce me because the treatment for preeclampsia is delivery," Kunzelman said. However, she said, the specialist hoped to delay the birth until her 37th week. "She wanted the baby to be considered term," she said, adding that she had some steroid shots to help the development of her son's lungs.
The mom was closely monitored for a couple of days to see how long the baby could "hold out." In the end, her OB decided to induce her at midnight on Wednesday, October 11, 2023.
She said that she felt "overwhelmed and scared" on the Tuesday afternoon as the countdown began.
"I wrote on my Instagram story that I hoped everything would be OK," she said. Then, to her surprise, her mom texted her. "The Etsy dress just arrived," she wrote. "It's amazing."
Kunzelman said she was too stressed in the moment to regret the lack of a maternity shoot. But, when her mom said, "Let's do it at the hospital," it was "fate."
Her mom and sister showed up. They brought make-up, hair and nail supplies, cameras, light stands, a backcloth — and, of course, the fabled gown from Etsy.
"We trooped past the nurse's station with all this gear," Pratt told Insider. "But nobody seemed to notice. "We thought that it would be better to ask forgiveness than permission."
Kunzelman wore a pink fantasy gown for the last-minute shoot
The team sprang into action. The members, including Kunzelman's sister-in-law and niece, did her hair, nails, and make-up.
"I was attached to all these monitors," she said, "They couldn't paint one of my nails because the pulse oximeter was clamped onto that finger."
Next, they carefully helped her ease into the $140 floaty pink dress. "I had an IV on my arm that we somehow taped under the fabric, she said. "Looking back, I've got no clue how we did it."
Pratt, who said she "always thrived in chaos," had less than 10 minutes to take all the photographs before a nurse was due to check her sister's vitals. Pratt was assisted by Kunzelman's husband, Nic, 30, who positioned the studio lights.
She took some photos in the bathroom after hanging a velvet backcloth over the shower curtain. Then Kunzelman wanted some pictures of her standing on the hospital bed.
"It was a really intense background with the medical supplies and equipment," Pratt, who posted a viral video of the shoot on TikTok, said.
The video — which got 1.3 million likes — captured the precise moment a nurse came into the room toward the end of the session. "She was shocked," Kunzelman said. "Luckily, she thought it was funny."
Other pregnant women have commented that they'd like to follow Kunzelman's lead
The mom said the experience of "family togetherness" was "calming." She said that she felt less stressed when it was time to be induced a few hours later. She said that was also able to take her emergency C-section in her stride.
Now that she has safely welcomed home baby Rockwell — Rocky for short — Kunzelman said she was delighted with the results of the impromptu photo shoot.
"Some of the comments on TikTok were from pregnant women who said they'd like to do the same thing," she said. "Given the circumstance, I wouldn't recommend it — but it was pretty cool."