I was feeling very rushed by the residents to break my membranes and get an epidural (even though my body was not ready for it due to being an induction), as an ICU nurse I educated myself as much as possible, but L&D is something very foreign to me. Dee educated me so much and discussed so many things with me. I felt that she listened so much better than the residents and did not give up even when the resident seemed annoyed that I was not convinced of his plan. She called him several times at the bedside and helped me advocate for myself.

Because of this, I was able to walk around and mobilize so much more and I am convinced that because of this, my baby fully engaged the next morning, and I was able to have a vaginal delivery (we were two hours away from having to get a C-section). She understood my fear of getting morphine or fentanyl for pain. But when my contractions got so intense, she offered many alternatives as well as education about pain during labor. I got morphine once during the induction with Pitocin and that helped me so much to continue to allow my body to work as much as possible. When it was time for the epidural, I told her I wanted to hold off on pain medication unless I absolutely needed it. I was in so much pain it was hard to sit still and do what the CRNA was asking me to do. Dee had brought in fentanyl in case we needed it and was extremely prepared, she first tried alternatives such as breathing with me by hugging me. Towards the end, she gave me pain medication when I asked and continued to help me breathe through the pain.

My husband was in front of me, but she realized he was too anxious to help so she took over. My mom also came to visit in the middle of the night (she works for EVS), Dee came in introduced herself, and talked to my mom for a little bit, after Dee walked out my mom said how glad she was that we had such an amazing nurse and I know that gave her peace of mind because she was very anxious (I am her only daughter and my baby is her first grandchild). The night was very long because of contractions and epidural, my body was not dilating like it was supposed to and the baby was not engaging, every time the resident did a cervix check it was a disappointment. Dee did such a good job keeping me calm and explaining everything, knowing that if I was anxious and tense labor was not going to progress. She also encouraged my husband and me to sleep as much as we could before position changes every two hours. She not only took care of me and my baby but my husband as well. My baby was sitting on the cord several times and having changes in the monitor, I was very anxious she did her best to stay calm get some help from another nurse, and repositioned me as many times as possible so the baby wouldn’t sit on the cord.

Even when she went for lunch, she introduced me to the nurse covering for her and that nurse was on top of everything while Dee was at lunch. I asked for her contact information if that was ok with her, and she checked on me periodically and the baby. I love sending her pictures of my baby as he grows, she is always so enthusiastic, and I can tell she loves what she does. I am an ICU nurse in the neuroscience ICU at TGH and have been there for 8 years (as well as a newly graduated APRN), so I have very high standards when it comes to care. Dee went well above and beyond so much that it left me and my husband without words. Also, it was Halloween night, and all the nurses had the cutest cowgirl costumes, including Dee. I asked if they had agreed on a theme and she said in L&D they had a position called reverse cowgirl and that’s why they were all cowgirls, she said “don’t worry we will make you a reverse cowgirl later”, my husband and I laughed. Later, as I was struggling through contractions and my legs were numb from the epidural, she walked in with another nurse to put me in reverse cowgirl position and made it so much fun I could not stop laughing and it got me distracted from the pain and the anxiety.

The next morning, she gave a bedside shift report to my day nurse, covered all the events from overnight, and continued to advocate for me by making sure a plan was implemented even while she was gone for the day. My baby was born 3 hours later at 8:53 am and I only pushed for 10 minutes, probably because of all the encouragement to ambulate and bounce on the yoga ball from Dee and from all the positions she put me on throughout the night once I had the epidural and could not mobilize. Later, she checked on me and the baby even though she was off that night. I was just in tears at how much she cared about us. Dee is very deserving of this DAISY Award!