I was admitted to L&D for a scheduled induction due to high blood pressure. After trying to induce for a couple of days I was told I needed to have a C-Section. The overwhelming feeling of despair and distress washed over me like a wave smashes into the ocean during a storm. I couldn't control myself. I started crying hysterically. My partner couldn't understand why I was so upset. He didn't know what to do to comfort me. We were both exhausted from trying and waiting. I wanted our baby but via C-Section? I was truly terrified of what was to come. I researched lactation and bonding and post-partum depression- but not a C-Section.

As the bed came to wheel me into the Operating Room an angel came into the room with it. Not in the form of a hallucination but in the form of a New Born Nurse, Nurse Cindy. She came to my side and consoled me like I was her child. Imagine, feeling the reassurance and support of a mother from a total stranger during the scariest moments of my life from a nurse whose patient was my unborn daughter- not even me. She didn't need to make me her issue, but she did. She told me I had to stop crying and she was going to make me laugh. In my head, I'm thinking, "lady you are crazy, they are about to cut me open and yank my baby out, to my utter dismay, and you are going to make me laugh?" But she did. And she was beside me just as much as my partner during my procedure. And when they handed my baby to her- I felt in my heart my baby was safe. As calm as Cindy made me feel- I knew she was transferring her energy to my baby and it gave me the peace I was so desperately searching for from the minute I was told the procedure was inevitable.

There is no exaggeration when I tell you I would not have been able to get through the delivery of my daughter without Nurse Cindy. Before she left us she told us she had a gift. She had written our baby's name on a pink paper. It had some stickers on it. And I knew it was made with genuine love. It was the first time I saw my daughter’s name written down. What a simple thing to do yet such a beautiful gesture.

I was in three hospitals during this pregnancy. It is an honor to have been cared for by Nurse Cindy. She was the kindest sweetest most compassionate nurse I have met in my life. I wish nothing but the best for her and will forever remember how much of an impact she made on my delivery and on my life.