20 award-winning photos capture the terror and beauty of giving birth during the pandemic

Anne Lucy Silva Barbosa/Anne Lucy Fotografia

• An international photography organization announced the Birth Photography Image Competition winners.
• The photos were judged for a number of categories, including labor, birth details, and postpartum.
• The pandemic made 2020 an especially difficult year for parents and birth photographers alike.

Note: This post contains graphic images of birth.

Childbirth was already an incredibly difficult and painful process that required strength and tenacity. But the pandemic added an entirely new layer to giving birth in 2020.

While the childbirth photographers that capture these precious moments lost much of their work last year, the images that were captured only emulated the beauty of new life amid so much grief.

The International Association of Professional Birth Photographers (IABPB) announced the winners of their annual birth photo competition this month.

The entries from across the globe were judged in five categories: birth details, labor, delivery, postpartum, and Fresh 48 (which documents the first few hours of life).

Read More: 15 award-winning photos that show the terror, beauty, and joy in giving birth

"We are incredibly proud of the entrants of this year's competition because in spite of all we endured in our community in recent months, this contest represents the resistance birth photographers have to overcome unforeseen challenges," Liz Cook, director of the IABPB, said.

"We are proud to present to you a breathtaking body of work that shares life's most powerful moments from 2020."

Here are 20 of this year's winners and honorable mentions.