I gave birth to my first child at 1 a.m. after laboring for almost all of the previous day. Every day I thank my lucky stars that my day nurse was Anna Garayalde. When she came on shift, I was having an extremely hard time dealing with the pain of my contractions, and while I was hardly in my right mind when I met her, she instantly brought a soothing, friendly, encouraging, positive, and healing presence to my delivery room. Her warm and friendly demeanor put me at ease immediately, and I knew I was in good hands. She went above and beyond to provide for my comfort, listening to my every expressed need and doing everything she could to make sure I was taken care of, whether it was setting me up with nitrous oxide ASAP or providing me with constant updates about where the anesthesiologist was so I could receive my requested epidural.

After I received my epidural and could finally rest, Anna remained an energetic, engaged, active, and incredibly kind member of my birthing team throughout the entire time she was with me. She helped me make difficult decisions about what kind of interventions to accept and which could wait. She spoke to me like I was her sister or friend, and I felt like she truly had my very best interests at heart. Because of that, I trusted her more than any other person in the delivery room. Because neither my husband nor I have any medical background, it meant an enormous deal to us to have someone on our medical team whose judgment and advice we trusted so thoroughly. Anna helped me feel empowered and capable of making decisions at every step of my labor. She knew I really wanted to have a vaginal delivery, and she went to enormous lengths to make that happen when it seemed my baby was stuck somewhere in my pelvis and labor was not progressing. She moved my heavy, dead-weight body around at regular intervals, she closely monitored patterns in the baby's heart rate to figure out which positions the baby "liked" most, and she even helped me get on my hands and knees and shook me from behind to help get the baby unstuck, despite how difficult it was to manipulate my completely anesthetized, dead-weight legs.

I was truly blown away by the level of her care and the efforts she was willing to expend on my behalf. I completely credit Anna with helping the baby get "unstuck" and descend in my pelvis, and therefore achieving the vaginal birth I had truly hoped for. In the earliest days after birth, when I was having a hard time learning to breastfeed and, on doctor's orders, supplementing with formula and pumped milk, I remember thinking that if I were dealing with a C-section recovery on top of everything and struggling to get out of bed or pick up my baby, I would be faring so much worse. In those difficult moments, I sent a thank-you to the universe for sending me Anna Garayalde as my nurse during labor. If I ever have a second child, I hope I will be lucky enough to have Anna as my nurse again. My husband and I remain deeply grateful to Anna for everything she did for us. I hope her extraordinary skills, bedside manner, and overall personal character will be recognized with a well-deserved DAISY Award. Because of Anna, I remember my first birth experience as an overwhelmingly positive one. She helped me feel that I was an active participant in my labor and delivery, not that labor and delivery were happening to me. I will never forget what Anna did for me or how she made me feel. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts, Anna!