Imagine the stress of anticipating labor and delivery in the early days of the COVID-19 lockdown and then receiving an unexpected positive result for the virus, just as contractions begin.
T faced exactly that situation in March - and suddenly her birth plan looked a lot different, starting with the fact that her partner wouldn't be allowed to accompany her to the hospital. An ambulance fetched her instead.
"I was scared, and I just didn't know what to do, honestly," said T, recalling the tearful scene in her driveway as she bid her partner and his mother goodbye.
She labored and delivered in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center rather than the maternity ward, but she was thankful for the nurses and the doctor, who didn't leave her side.
The hardest part was yet to come--right after C made his entrance at 1 am, T caught only a quick glimpse before he was taken to the Pediatric Intermediate Care Unit (PIMCU).
"They told me that since the virus was so new, they weren't sure what to expect and they wanted to do what was safest for C," said T, who was likely infected by a co-worker and had only mild symptoms of a cold. "I felt so sad, but I tried to be strong. I knew it was hard on everyone, including the medical staff. It was heart-wrenching for them to separate us."
Alone and in pain in the wee hours of the morning, T remembers waking up and crying. Nothing was right, and she was now anticipating a 14-day quarantine between her aching arms and her newborn son.
Early that morning, nurse Jo Rosenberger, BSN, RN, CPN was back at work after a week off and feeling nervous about the growing pandemic, especially when she was given charge of a 7-hour-old baby whose mom had COVID.
But from the moment she locked eyes with C, she was in love - and determined to meet his every need as if he were her own.
"I could not imagine how his mother must feel, not being with him for the first day of his life," Rosenberger said.
That's when she decided to get creative. She enlisted the aid of the Child Life Specialist to help her FaceTime with T.
"I told Mom that I was going to do my best to make her feel like she was right there in the room," Rosenberger said. "I held C and turned him toward the camera so she could stare at him, and I narrated everything I did for him. There were lots of tears shed, for sure."
Rosenberger was also the first to introduce C to his daddy via FaceTime. "I unswaddled C and showed every little piece of him to his dad," she said. "I showed him the dimple on his cheek and the little birthmark on his leg. His dad was looking at him so adoringly, and I could see how much he loved him."
Other family members also got a virtual introduction to C, including his big sister, 5-year-old A.
Knowing that there would be no pictures with the family to document C's first days of life, Rosenberger - who is also a professional photographer - offered to do a newborn photo shoot.
With T watching remotely, Rosenberger photographed the little bundle with props she brought along, such as a basket and blankets. Everything had to be washed and rewashed, but the effort was worth it, she said.
"I was sweating bullets in my PPE (personal protective equipment) to get the shots I wanted," Rosenberger recalled with a chuckle. "It was a surreal combination of my two careers and my two passions coming together - and definitely a highlight of both careers and of life in general."
Any worries that T had about her baby's care vanished as soon as she observed Rosenberger with him, she said. "I could feel how caring she was and that gave me such peace," T said. "I was just praying it would be over soon and I'd have my baby in my arms, but I am very thankful for the team that took care of both of us."
In close communication with a larger team that included labor and delivery nurses, infectious disease doctors, and others, Rosenberger coordinated newborn testing, did a COVID swab on C, and helped coordinate delivery of newborn education for T.
"It was almost like I was caring for two patients at once, only across the hospital from one another," she said. "I wanted to do everything I could to make the situation better."
Since C's COVID test was negative and the desire to foster the mother-baby bond was strong, plans changed and C was allowed to go home to his parents three days after his birth. With joy, Rosenberger wheeled him through the hospital to meet them in person.
One day when he's older, T said she will tell C all about the strange and difficult time in which he was born. "I'll tell him we were both troopers for going through what we went through, and then I'll tell him there was a very special nurse who made all the difference," she said.
"Jo can see the impact of such a challenging time and still put humanity at the center of her nursing care," said her manager. "She used every resource at her disposal to provide the best experience possible for this family."