I had gone into the hospital for a scheduled induction with my second baby. Brooke was one of my nurses from the time I got there until after my daughter was born. The entire time she was there, she was so reassuring of what I was doing and how I was moving through labor, and was reassuring me of all of the decisions I wanted to make, and was encouraging me the entire way through labor.

When it came time for my epidural, she stood right in front of me and gently rubbed my arms and talked me through it with the anesthesiologist. Later in labor, I started feeling very sick and shaky, and she went above and beyond to try to help calm my nerves and ease my nausea. She checked on me often and was there as soon as I pressed my call button.

When it was time for the baby, we had to try to wait for the on-call doctor. It ended up being a 30-minute wait, and she stayed with me the whole time and talked with me, and encouraged me. Once the baby was born, her care didn't go away in the slightest. She was so proud of me and really made me feel like I could do almost anything.

The rest of her shift, she helped me with getting to the bathroom, taking care of myself postpartum, and before she left for the night, she told me that she would be back the next day and would make sure to check on me and my baby. She held herself to what she had said, and I saw her the next day as well! I truly think having her as part of my team made my labor and delivery one hundred times better! The whole time, she felt like a friend I had known for years, not a stranger who was there to do her job and go home.