I delivered my second son with many complications (postpartum hemorrhage, Bakri balloon, blood transfusion, to name a few fun activities), and everyone who took care of me was incredibly wonderful and made me feel so safe in their hands. 
 
One nurse specifically made a huge difference in my postpartum recovery – Acute Care Obstetrics NOC RN, Dyna Lingat. Not only did Dyna work with the highest level of competence and professionalism, but she also treated me as she would any other patient. I mention this first because I am a former employee to the SCL MCH unit and my experience with my first delivery in 2022 was vastly different – due to being an L&D nurse by background, I felt pretty unsupported with my 2022 experience on ACO during the NOC shift and was left alone a lot and told “I already knew what to do” – I feel this previous experience contributed to my postpartum anxiety and depression by setting myself up thinking I needed to know how to do everything on my own.
 
Having Dyna as my NOC RN for two nights in a row not only aided in the recovery of my complicated delivery, but she really set me up for success in caring for my newborn at home. She thoroughly explained everything she was doing, even though she knew I knew the explanation, especially for infant fall prevention. On the second night together, she could see that I was extremely fatigued, plus I was alone in the room as my husband was at home with our toddler, so I was high risk for having an infant drop. At each feed, she reminded me to call her once the baby is back in the bassinet (or if I needed help putting baby in the bassinet) and if she didn’t hear from me by a certain time, she would be come in to check on me. She saw me starting to doze off several times and really helped me prioritize getting the rest I needed in between feeding sessions by clustering care, explaining what tasks to expect next, and suggesting that I “go to sleep now” before the next feeding session came. What this did for my mindset was remind me that I am not alone in this journey, and it is extremely important to rely on others to help me, even if I may know conceptually what to do. 
 
Dyna went above and beyond throughout my stay, but two moments come to mind immediately. Early after midnight, Dyna came in with a makeshift “birthday cake” for me – an upside-down paper soup bowl for the cake stand, a muffin for the cake, and a straw cut in half for the candle. She also made the cutest hat for M; I had never seen this style before.
 
I believe that Dyna provides this type of care for all of her patients, as it is obvious that this comes out of her so naturally. Nothing that needed to be done felt like a “task” to be checked off. She never rushed through anything with me. I felt like I was her only patient!