Emily Ratajkowski Shares Raw Photos From Her Labor ‘Between Pushes’

Emily Ratajkowski and her husband, Sebastian Bear McLard, welcomed their first child, Sylvester Apollo Bear, on March 8, which the model called “the most surreal, beautiful, and love-filled morning of my life.” Ratajkowski shared a photo from that first morning, a perfect sunkissed shot of mother and child. On Wednesday, Ratajkowski posted some photos from raw photos from labor, captioned “In between pushes/first moments with Sly. Life!”

Ratajkowski wrote an essay for Vogue in October about how she wanted to raise her child with as few gender norms as possible. “When my husband and I tell friends that I’m pregnant, their first question after ‘Congratulations’ is almost always ‘Do you know what you want?’” Ratajkowski wrote. “We like to respond that we won’t know the gender until our child is 18 and that they’ll let us know then.”

“Everyone laughs at this,” Ratajkowski continued. “There is a truth to our line, though, one that hints at possibilities that are much more complex than whatever genitalia our child might be born with: the truth that we ultimately have no idea who – rather than what – is growing inside my belly.”

While she acknowledged that raising a child in a completely gender-neutral way isn’t really possible, she wants to force “as few gender stereotypes on my child as possible.” Ratajkowski wrote that she didn’t “like that we force gender-based preconceptions onto people, let alone babies,” adding that she wants to be “a parent who allows my child to show themself to me.”

“I don’t necessarily fault anyone for these generalizations — a lot of our life experiences are gendered, and it would be dishonest to try to deny the reality of many of them,” Ratajkowski admitted. “But I don’t like that we force gender-based preconceptions onto people, let alone babies. I want to be a parent who allows my child to show themself to me. And yet I realize that while I may hope my child can determine their own place in the world, they will, no matter what, be faced with the undeniable constraints and constructions of gender before they can speak or, hell, even be born.”

“Now, though, I don’t try to envision a pink or blue blanket in my arms,” Ratajkowski concluded. “I’m too humbled to have any false notions of control. I’m completely and undeniably helpless when it comes to almost everything surrounding my pregnancy: how my body will change, who my child will be. But I’m surprisingly unbothered. Instead of feeling afraid, I feel a new sense of peace. I’m already learning from this person inside my body. I’m full of wonder.”