There will always be a special place in my heart for Nurse Wendy Bowie due to the exceptional care she provided to me as her patient. My relationship with Wendy goes back much further on a personal and professional level. As a labor and delivery nurse myself, I was blessed to have Wendy as my preceptor when I started working at Nathan Littauer in 2018 as a new grad. She taught me many nursing skills, but the most valuable thing I learned from her was compassion. To this day, I tell all the new nurses that if they ever get the opportunity to watch Nurse Wendy care for a laboring mother, they need to do so because she is truly amazing.

I was blessed enough to be able to experience the nursing care provided by Wendy in a different light as her patient when I just delivered my son at Nathan Littauer. Wendy claimed me as her patient in the morning of her shift and helped me cope through a long day of labor. She was only scheduled to work 7 am to 7 pm, but refused to leave my side until I delivered a few minutes after midnight. She recognized that things didn’t go exactly as I had planned for my labor and delivery and found the right words to help me come to terms with that and welcome the hurdles as important parts of my birth story. She made me feel empowered and beautiful as a woman during an extremely vulnerable time. But most importantly, she advocated for me and ensured that my husband and I always felt safe. I truly feel that every laboring mother deserves to have Wendy as their nurse. This is her calling. I will never forget all that she did for me and my baby.