Katrina Pettenger, RN

My wife and I were planning a home birth for our first child. After 42 weeks and 1 day of waiting with no signs of labor and a blood pressure that was slowly creeping up, we decided to come into the hospital for an induction. We felt disheartened and defeated, but we entered with the expectation that we would advocate for ourselves and still attempt to have as natural a birth as possible while maintaining safety. The triage nurses and our resident doctor were very understanding of our hopes and agreed to help us through this process.

However, the lead physician came in and was a far different experience. We felt that she was attempting to push us into far higher interventions and insisting that there was a high chance we would have to have a C-Section. The provider wanted to break my wife’s water artificially from the moment she walked in and was only 1.5cm dilated. It felt like our only hope was that the medical resident would honor our wishes and stand up to this provider alongside us. This was true; however, the resident left shortly afterward, and we were set up to be in this lead provider’s care all night.

On top of this, our wonderful nurse was about to change shifts as well. It felt like all of our solidarity and trusted people in the hospital were leaving while we were left with what felt at the time to us like the enemy. However, Katie was the nurse who took over for the night. Right off the bat, we knew Katie was a powerful nurse to have caring for us. The first thing Katie did was come into the room to fully understand our situation, expectations, and emotional state. She educated us on how exactly to best approach achieving our desired birth experience. Within this assessment, she quickly recognized that we were incredibly uncomfortable with our provider, and she set out to speak with some colleagues to find a solution.

When she came back, she explained that only one OB hospitalist works at a time, but other OB doctors in the building may be willing to take our case if we want to exercise our right to switch providers. We took her up on this offer, and within 15 minutes she came back and said that our case was picked up and our provider had been changed. We were unbelievably relieved. After this, my wife labored all night. It was a long and hard labor that was incredibly painful for her, with very mild progress. Katie never failed to fully educate and guide us to make the right decisions aligned with our birth plan. She clearly explained the risks and benefits of every possible route and empowered us to make educated, confident care decisions.

Because of Katie’s incredible advocacy, clear education, and strong patient empowerment, we felt fully safe, trusted our labor team, and achieved the birth experience we wanted. Our delivery was complicated; our child was 10 lbs and ended up having a brief shoulder dystocia, but my wife was able to deliver vaginally due to the care team working to be as minimal as possible without jumping to intense interventions first. My wife experienced a hemorrhage that was quickly and expertly repaired before it reached a critical level. We are incredibly thankful for Katie, and for all of these reasons, we believe she undoubtedly deserves a DAISY Award!