Namesake

When I first started working at Parkland Labor and Delivery, one of the seasoned nurses that had a locker across from mine in the dressing room said "You'll know you've made it as a delivery nurse when you have a baby named after you."

Well, about a year into my job, it happened.

I was taking care of a sweet laboring patient. She and her husband were refugees of a sort. Because of her husband's assistance to the United States Armed Forces in the Middle East, their family was no longer safe in their home country and had to flee under protection of the US military, ending up in Dallas, TX. This woman was nine months pregnant, far from home, family, friends, and everything familiar, having just escaped an attempt on her life. Understandably, she was terrified.

Her English was poor but her husband's was excellent. As I spoke with this couple, I learned about her previous delivery back in her home country. Her due date had come and gone with still no baby. Whatever people there help in the delivery of babies came to her and beat her to induce her labor, triggering contractions as a stress response. She had no medications available to help relieve her labor pains. During the delivery, she tore horribly, so badly that she needed major reconstructive surgery. Her surgical site got infected over and over again, required surgery after surgery. It took months, if not years to heal. She was traumatized.

And now I was going to a major part of her initial impression of America. I explained to her that we had special medicine that we could give her to gently induce her labor. I taught her about the magic of epidurals, that she need not feel pain during labor or delivery. I reassured her of the competence of our midwives, that she would have not only a safe and healthy experience in the hospital, but also a joyous one. And then I went out the door and prayed like crazy that everything would go perfectly for her.

And it did. A little pitocin and she was off to the races. Soon after her contractions started in earnest, we got her an amazing epidural. She progressed wonderfully and in no time was ready to push. She had the best midwife on the board and together we coached her through the whole delivery process. Her little girl came out smoothly and screaming with out any injury to mother or baby. She and her husband were crying from relief and I was too!

To express their gratitude for making such a previously horrible process into an incredible one, they named their little daughter Laura. They took a picture of me holding my namesake and showed me their happy post on the husband's facebook profile.

Coolest. Feeling. Ever.

And then, with my heart overflowing with gratitude to my Father in Heaven who cares about the desperate plea of a delivery nurse, I went and offered up my prayer of thanks.