As a former Mother Baby nurse & Charge Nurse at Parkland Hospital, I know how exhausting this job is. I have had the pleasure of working with very compassionate nurses, and also some nurses who struggled to get past doing the bare minimum for their patients. Macy Rae stood out to me as one of the best nurses that I have seen. I had the privilege of photographing X's birth.

I saw Macy Rae go above and beyond for the family in a way that was incredibly touching. X's baby was in comfort care, and Macy Rae was incredibly tender with Mom and Dad. She had a calm, gentle, yet joyful spirit even in the midst of a really hard circumstance.

I saw Macy Rae advocate for mom's wishes when it came to holding the baby immediately after birth. She was attentive to their whole family. Macy Rae took tons of pictures and videos on the patient's phone. She celebrated with the baby's parents over his precious features. I also saw Macy advocate for the patient's needs, even when it was inconvenient to other staff. For example, when the surgeon had finished closing her c-section, mom asked if she could hold her baby skin to skin. Another staff member appeared very annoyed by this because she wanted to move her to the stretcher first and do a fundal rub. Macy politely, yet firmly, advocated for mom to hold her baby skin to skin in the final moments of his life. Macy made sure that the baby would not fall as Y, the dad, was incredibly attentive. Macy made sure that the staff member could do what she needed to do, but in a way that also considered the requests of Mom. I could see a sigh of relief on mom's face as she deeply wanted to hold her baby while he was alive.

Additionally, the mom wanted to give her baby a bath when they moved to recovery. Macy had intended on bringing him to another room to bathe him and do the footprints, but she instead came up with a creative way for mom (who was less than an hour post c/s) to give her son a bath. With another kind nurse by her side, Macy set up a bath in Mom's lap. The nurses assisted mom and dad as they bathed their son, who had passed. It was one of the most impactful moments to see these parents, who just lost their firstborn son, experience a sense of joy as they were able to do something that other parents do. The images from the birth are understandably devastating, but there was a moment of joy as they honored their son. They bathed him and admired every feature that God had created him to have. I captured smiles on their faces during their darkest day.

All that to say, Macy Rae did an incredible job serving this family. She sacrificially and selflessly served this family with humility.