Written by
Corinne Platt

Photographs by
Joanna B. Pinneo

At 12:02 a.m. on December 5^th, 1999, Shantel gave birth to a baby girl, Iris Priscilla, named after her grandmother.

Iris arrived healthy and alert with a full head of black hair, after only twelve-and-a-half hours of labor. She weighed 7lb 9oz.and was 20 inches long.

Shantel’s mom, Corine, cut the cord and says Gramma’s little girl looks just like Shantel. "She has my nose," said Shantel, who also thought she had a lot of hair, rosy cheeks, small lips and a light complexion.

Shantel's mom; sister, Melody; father, Richard; step mom, Juanita; cousin, Jackie; aunt, Sandy; and friend, Kathy helped in the delivery room.

"There’s really no way you can explain them. There isn’t. You just feel like this really bad pain in your back. Sometimes if you’re lucky, you’ll have front labor but back labor is worse. It’ll start in your back and it will move around to the front. And then you’ll feel a lot of pressure. But me I was just getting back labor."

"I was getting the urge to push and they didn’t want me to and that’s when my Lamaze class came in handy, I started breathing. It was hard to focus because the pain is so bad but once you get into your breathing and the contraction’s halfway done it starts to feel better."

"You know that you’re a mother cause the baby won’t feel comfortable in anybody’s arms except yours. She knows your voice and she’s really going to be the only person comfortable with – it’s only going to be with you."

"I decided to breastfeed because I wanted her to have the best. I wanted her to be healthy and everything. It was painful but you get used to it after a couple minutes and it’s still painful now just for a few seconds and then she latches on good. The best advice is to just relax. If you don’t relax it’s gonna hurt more."