My wife and I came into the hospital for an induction. This was our first pregnancy and we were scared of all the unknowns that come with delivering your first baby. We came right before a shift change and at the shift change Shelly was assigned to us as the RN that would be with us for her entire shift. The loving and caring nature of her really came out from the very beginning.

My wife's labor was low key for the first few hours, not really requiring much help until around 6 a.m. Shelly was very patient and always let us know what was going on and never left her side. Her bedside manor was off the charts, calming and reassuring my wife that everything was ok. She sat next to the bed the entire time holding her hand and explaining what was going on and coaching her as to what she would need to do next. Over the next 3 hours she was the one constant that was always in the room which was really great for us as we came to know her during this time.

Our baby was born and had to be taken immediately by the NICU team, leaving my wife all alone with just Shelly and the midwife with her while the team worked on getting our baby breathing. I was able to be with the baby, but for the first 40 minutes of his life the NICU team had him and my wife had Shelly to help keep her calm.

I know we are not the only people to have a baby, but the way Shelly and the rest of the staff made the experience a great one reinforces the fact that Mayo cares about the people they put in place to care for the people that walk through their doors. I hope that if we have another baby that Shelly would be working and assigned to us.

Thank you, Shelly for enhancing this experience for the 3 of us. We really appreciated that you stopped by our room the next day to check on us too.