What makes an incredible birth photo? For one, it captures the raw beauty of the experience. Second, it shows you what giving birth is really like — whether you’ve given birth yourself or you’ve never even been in the room with a woman giving birth before. It brings you into the moment with the mom-to-be.

What is it like to be in labor? There is no way to really know until you’re in the middle of it, yet birth photographers are able to pull back the curtain a bit ― capturing an experience that can be surreal in its intensity, but one that happens multiple times every second around the world.

Here are 34 photos that show how wildly birth experiences can differ ― from the woman who works through contractions at home, to the mom who has a scheduled C-section ― and that pay homage to the fact that no matter how women labor, they truly are strong as hell.