Chessie was the most amazing, supportive, and truly empathetic nurse. She was a blessing to have as part of my labor process. Chessie was the nurse assigned to me at 1 am when I went in for my induction with my daughter. From the moment she came into my room she was calming and friendly. My anxiety was through the roof because this was my first child and I’m only 19. I gave her my birth plan and she never questioned anything on it and supported my decisions, which was very much appreciated. They began my induction with cytotec at 4:00 am and I began having small contractions. 

She left at shift change that morning at 7:30 am and I was given a new nurse. I labored for the next 12 hours with my new nurse and in those 12 hours I felt like I was questioned and pushed to change my birth plan. They kept asking if I wanted an epidural and my water broken which I had already made very clear was something I didn’t want to be asked about or persuaded to do and if it came to that I would ask for those interventions. At 7:30 pm, Chessie returned and was reassigned as my nurse. She immediately saw that I was being consistently bombarded with doctors asking me if I wanted interventions to speed up labor and she was an amazing advocate for me and talked to the doctors and told them to stop bugging me, reiterating what I had already told them so many times. At around 9 pm I asked for an epidural because I was 5 cm dilated and 40-50% effaced I think, and I hadn’t really slept in 36 hours.

I needed to relieve the pain so I could rest. She listened and without question she paged the anesthesiologist immediately. When the anesthesiologist got there, they began the process of placing my epidural. I was very anxious because I hadn’t planned on getting an epidural and I don’t handle new pain very well. I was having bad contractions already, and when the anesthesiologist did the lidocaine injections, I began to cry. 

Chessie was right in front of me the whole time, holding my hands and shoulders and talking me through the pain. The epidural only got worse from there, the anesthesiologist tried to place the line for the medicine in my spine twice and couldn’t quite get it. At this point I was crying a lot more and Chessie stayed right in-front of me providing comfort and reassurance. We ended up needing to call a second anesthesiologist in and he was much more abrasive than the first. He told me to stop crying so hard and to hold my position with my back rounded. I was having trouble staying in position because I had already been doing it for about 30-45 minutes, and I had a very large belly which made all of it difficult. The second doctor finally placed the line for the epidural after much more crying, yelling, pain, and anxiety. By the end of that experience, which lasted over an hour, I was having a panic attack and having a very hard time calming myself down. Chessie stood right there holding my hands, passing me tissues, and talking me down. After that,t I felt much more connected to her, and I was so thankful she was there to help me through that. 

She later placed a catheter to empty my bladder, and my water broke! She helped me through that and then was there again when I started pushing contractions at 6:20 am. She held my leg and provided words of encouragement. She even did it alone at one point when the resident OB had to step out to check on a different patient. I asked her if she was going to be with me the whole time I was pushing until my baby came out, and she said of course. At shift change at 7:30 I was still pushing, and my child hadn’t even crowned yet. She clocked out and came back to my room as a support person. She was then there for another hour while I pushed until I gave birth at 8:17 am. When my daughter was born Chessie cried with me and my family out of happiness. She was through everything and was the best support and advocate I could have asked for. She was empathetic and truly cared about my feelings. She made me feel seen and didn’t treat me like a child as some of the other staff members did. She really went above and beyond, especially when she came back to be there for the birth even though she was exhausted from a 12-hour graveyard shift. If anyone deserves this award, it’s her.