I had the pleasure of working with Anne not once but three times over the last few months. My first interaction with Anne was during my graduate course at Fairfield University. While I was working as a teaching assistant to the undergraduate nursing students, one student had Anne as a preceptor. The student constantly praised Anne for her extraordinary experience on the L&D unit and spoke very highly about her as a nurse and preceptor. Being 7 months pregnant at the time, I remember thinking to myself, boy do I hope she's my nurse in a few months.
Fast forward 2 months later, I am 37 weeks into my pregnancy and my obstetrician sends me directly to Stamford Hospital to rule out pre-eclampsia. As a first-time mom and definitely not prepared to deliver our baby boy, my husband and I head to the hospital. Once again, I think in my head, I hope I get to meet this famous Anne. As we get settled into our delivery room, in walks a confident nurse named Anne. My nerves instantly calm as I know I am in good hands. To no surprise, Anne is everything my student described. She is compassionate, gentle, efficient, honest, supportive, highly skilled and everything you'd want in your nurse. She explained everything in detail and walked us through exactly what was going to happen during our stay. To everyone's surprise, they discharged us home. We head home to await the arrival of our baby.
On Father's Day, we're admitted to begin our induction. That night was rough. The next morning, I was ecstatic to see Anne walk through the door. I immediately ask if she's my nurse and felt a huge relief when she said "yes". I continued to labor throughout the day, holding out until I could get my epidural. Anne was everything that my husband and I needed at that time. She had a calm demeanor and exceptional skill set that I will always appreciate. One fond memory I have of Anne was when my contractions were getting very strong and I was having a difficult time getting through them. My husband, myself and Anne had tried multiple positions to try and control my pain. Then, she found my saving grace. She had me sit in a rocking chair while my husband would press my knees towards my chest during the contraction. That got me through until I could have my epidural.
Finally, it was time to push. She said, "okay we are going to practice pushing". Being the naive pregnant patient, I responded with "where is the doctor?" She smiled and said, "he'll be here later". 3 1/2 hours later, I delivered a healthy baby boy. I can confidently say that my delivery would not have been as successful without the efforts and support of Anne and my husband. The three of us were a team, helping one another wherever it was needed. Anne was devoted to giving me what I wanted which was a vaginal delivery and she kept pushing and sticking with us through it all.
To this day, I tell everyone I had a fantastic delivery, and it was mostly because I had an amazing nurse who coached my husband and me through the whole process. I am an experienced oncology nurse and I know what it means to be a compassionate advocate for your patient. After my experience at Stamford Hospital, I have a new respect for those working in Labor and Delivery. They are experiencing patients at both their worst and the best time of their lives and they must know how to respond appropriately and quickly at anything that may come their way.
Anne is a true DAISY Nurse for her exceptional compassion and experience as a Labor and Delivery nurse at Stamford Hospital. They are lucky to have her on her team and I was even luckier to have her on mine.