A pregnant woman did a maternity photo shoot in the hospital in 10 minutes, hours before giving birth

• Because of health complications, Jackie Kunzelman's labor was induced a couple of weeks early.
• The mom-to-be didn't do her maternity photo shoot earlier because her dress hadn't arrived.

Jackie Kunzelman knew she was cutting it close by leaving her maternity photo shoot until the last few weeks of her pregnancy. But she was having trouble scheduling it because of her busy schedule as a medical student.

There was also an unexpected delay in the delivery of the flamboyant maternity gown she'd ordered from Etsy for the occasion.

"It was running late," Kunzelman said. "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. Her obstetrician advised her to go to the hospital.

Kunzelman said that her OB wanted to hold off on the delivery

Tests showed that she had preeclampsia — a potentially dangerous pregnancy complication characterized by high blood pressure.

"My OB wanted to induce me because the treatment for preeclampsia is delivery," Kunzelman said. However, she said, her doctor hoped to delay the birth until her 37th week. "She wanted the baby to be considered term," Kunzelman said, adding that she was given steroid shots to help the development of her son's lungs.

The mom-to-be was closely monitored for a few days to see how long the baby could "hold out." In the end, her OB decided to induce labor at midnight on October 11.

She said that she felt "overwhelmed and scared" the day before 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 at the moment to worry about not having the photo shoot, but her mom suggested they do it at the hospital.

Her mom and sister showed up. They brought makeup, hair and nail supplies, cameras, light stands, a backdrop — and, of course, the gown from Etsy.

"We trooped past the nurse's station with all this gear," Lexi 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. Family members, including Kunzelman's sister-in-law and niece, did her hair, nails, and makeup.

"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's "always thrived in chaos," had less than 10 minutes to take all the photographs before a nurse was supposed 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 backdrop over the shower curtain. Kunzelman also 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 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, and it helped her take the emergency C-section she ended up having in stride.

The baby, named Rockwell — Rocky for short — is home safe and sound, and 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."