MFA Graduate Research Project | Hannah Schock, Reborn a Mother

Hannah is a designer and high school digital arts educator in Pennsylvania who embodies a free-spirited approach to life and creativity. After years of nurturing students’ artistic minds, she was inspired to reignite her passion for graphic design by pursuing her MFA in Communication Design. Through this program, she rediscovered herself as a designer and is set to launch her freelance career. When she’s not teaching or designing, Hannah can be found raising her boys with her husband, crafting, enjoying the outdoors, and most definitely eating some chocolate.

Reborn a Mother is a heartfelt project that’s a testament to the transformative power of childbirth, meticulously crafted to honor the emotional depths and intricacies of the maternal journey.

With each story is a word chosen by the mother to encapsulate the essence of her birthing experience. From the tranquility of “peaceful” to the turmoil of “hell on earth”, each word is hand-illustrated to serve as a gateway into the raw emotions of labor and delivery, evoking empathy and understanding.

As you turn the pages, each story unfolds, handwritten with love and vulnerability. Keywords, resonating with the essence of the chosen descriptor, are highlighted, reminding the reader of the emotion felt by the mother at the time.

Paired with these deeply personal stories, lies a juxtaposition – the clinical precision of data visualizations. Each birth journey is accompanied by a visual representation of key data points such as the mother’s age, location of birth, type of delivery, medical interventions, and the intensity of pain endured. As the reader takes in the human emotion of each birth story alongside the stark reality of data, a profound realization unfolds – that behind every statistic lies a story, a journey, a life forever changed.

Reborn a Mother is more than just a collection of birth stories; it is a celebration of womanhood, a source of solace for mothers sharing their experiences, and a guiding light for those yet to embark on the journey of motherhood. Through its pages, readers are invited to witness the beauty and complexity of childbirth to connect with the profound impact it has on the lives of women everywhere.