Mary Jordan Johnson
May 2022
Mary Jordan
Johnson
,
RN
Labor & Delivery
Women's & Children's Center at Moses Cone Hospital
Greensboro
,
NC
United States

 

 

 

MJ constantly told me that I could do it and how strong I was.
When I learned we were expecting our 4th child a flood of familiar emotions ensued. However, some that I wasn’t quite familiar with in a time that should be so happy came too. Anxiety, fear, and worry. This was my first pregnancy as a labor and delivery nurse and with that comes the knowledge of everything that can go wrong. Would I go to an appointment and my baby not have a heartbeat? Would they tell me I had placenta previa? Would I end up with an abruption? Gestational diabetes, hypertension, pre-eclampsia, eclampsia, and so many other complications flooded my mind and that was just pregnancy itself. Those complications didn’t even include all the complications that I had seen in the delivery room. I talked to MJ about these fears more than once on shift and she always reassured me, so imagine my relief when I came in already in labor and she was my nurse. From the time I walked into the room, she began to calm my fears and anxieties. She asked if I wanted to hear the heart rate and see the tracing or if it would worsen my anxiety. She reassured me that he and I were doing great, MJ never pushed any decisions, she gently and compassionately guided me to make my own. Once I entered the tub and things got more intense, she not only coached me to get through but she also coached my husband to be the best support that he could be for me. She constantly told me that I could do it and how strong I was. It was my best delivery yet and I know most of that was because she was my nurse. I’m so thankful to have had her as my nurse and I know her other patients must feel the same.