Vanessa was my nurse during my labor, delivery, and postpartum with my first baby. I have extreme medical anxiety, and I never thought that I would be able to get through childbirth and labor. I was in labor for 3 days, and Vanessa was my nurse during the most intense part of labor before I decided to get an epidural and then again during the pushing, birth, and first hours postpartum. After being in labor for 20 hours I was absolutely overwhelmed by anxiety and fatigue and was no longer able to cope with contractions without an epidural. To give you an idea about the extent of my medical anxiety, the part of childbirth I was most terrified about going into was getting the IV put in. Due to my intense fear of needles, I resisted getting the epidural for 3 hours, and during that time, I was in an absolute panic. My husband said that the only reason we were able to get through those hours and eventually get me to the point where I got the epidural was because of Vanessa and her mix of empathy, comfort, and take-charge attitude.

From my husband’s perspective, “my wife put off wanting to have kids for years due to her medical anxiety and fear of needles. Throughout a long, early, and active labor, she opted to avoid the epidural because the thought of putting it in was scarier and worse than the pain or labor. After 20 hours of labor, which started in the evening after a workday (40+ hours without sleep), her exhaustion and growing anxiety with the IV in her arm made it impossible to cope longer. After several hours of struggling through increasing contractions, my wife finally decided to go for the epidural. It then took 2 hours to get her emotionally ready to put in the epidural. During this time, she was in alternating periods of extreme pain with contractions and full-on panic between contractions due to the thought of the epidural. Vanessa is what got us through that. I cannot think of that time period without breaking down crying. After we finally got the epidural put in, Vanessa spent the next hour and a half getting my wife calm and emotionally stable and insisted that I take a break as I was also emotionally overwhelmed and exhausted. Without such good care, I think my wife would have had to be sedated and had a c-section.”

Vanessa provided an extremely personalized level of care and was absolutely tireless and exceptionally patient during those tough hours. She later was back on shift when I was in the pushing phase and helped me position and gave me encouragement during that time. I was nervous about pushing and having her there to help me through it was invaluable. Immediately postpartum she cared for me and helped me cope with the pain and discomfort. I never once felt self-conscious or judged, even though I know that I am a very difficult patient to have due to my fear of all things medical. I can honestly say that I had been dreading birth and labor for my entire adult life, but because of Vanessa, it was a good experience and not the highly traumatic event I had always imagined it would be. She is an exceptional professional and truly amazing in her level of individualized care and we cannot thank her enough.