Maggie was everything my husband and I needed from a nurse during the delivery of our child: a competent medical professional, a coach, a friend, and a cheerleader. In every interaction, she built us up and treated us as real, complete people. She was not set up for this success by the circumstances of my delivery. I needed to be induced for medical reasons, so not only was I very anxious about the well-being of my baby during the whole delivery, but it also took about 38 hours. Maggie was on the last shift, when I was absolutely exhausted, and did an awesome job bolstering up my emotional resilience to get through that final stretch. She chatted with us about our lives and our families, serving as both a happy distraction and an anchor to the fact that she - and everyone helping us at the hospital - were real people, on my team, which was crucial in preventing resentment from the unfavorable birth circumstances.

She let my husband be involved so that I could feel his support - and he could feel useful. She was responsive and compassionate when the epidural started to wear off. Throughout her entire shift, she complimented my strength and kindness, so I was able to keep being those things. Where Maggie really shone, though, was during the last hours of delivery, as the baby became stuck in the birth canal. Whether this was really that dangerous a situation for my baby and me, I'm not sure, because Maggie did not cause a panic. Instead, she kept us calmly updated on what we needed to know, educated us about the baby heart rate drops that were concerning me, helped guide the labor with new positions, provided valuable feedback on where and how I was concentrating my pushing, leveraged the expertise of the whole labor and delivery team by making sure the doctor was aware of the situation and appropriately involved, and cheered me on every step of the way.

I ended up having a successful delivery of a healthy baby, which may have happened with any of the many excellent labor and delivery nurses who cared for us during our stay. However, we are both especially grateful to Maggie for all she did to get us through the scary, life-changing experience of childbirth without any regrets about the hospital and care team to which we entrusted ourselves and our child.