Childbirth is scary. It's even more horrifying for a first-time mom being induced at 37 weeks for pre-eclampsia who, up until a few weeks before thought her pregnancy was textbook normal. That's the situation I found myself in when I was admitted. I was scared, anxious and after more than a day of induction I was starting to fall apart.

Several nurses provided me care at Kaiser during my stay, but one stood out as going above and beyond in her professional duties. I'm not a religious person by nature, but I consider her to be akin to an angel.

From the beginning of her shift, Zoily talked to me, not around me. She explained everything before it happened. She asked the doctors who saw me to explain, prompting them to do so if they were leaving the room without directly addressing me. In a few cases, she even ran down a doctor if one hadn't seen me in a few hours. Zoily became my advocate.

Before every procedure she discussed the positives and negatives with me. She respected my wishes and asked me before she did anything that might interfere with my birth plan. And then when my birth plan all went to hell and everything seemed to go wrong, she held my hand and told me I didn't fail and stuck by me. After hours of pushing and getting nowhere, I was exhausted - which was exasperated by my magnesium drip to prevent seizing - and so ready to give up. When my baby girl had her head turned the wrong way, she spent a good chunk of her time getting her to turn.

It was a crazy day to deliver - with all the beds in labor and delivery full but she delivered a quality of care that made me feel like I was the only patient in the entire hospital. I was in a haze toward the end of my pushing, and very few voices broke through it. Zoily was one of them. Her comforting words and reassurances were integral to my labor experience.

When my husband and I finally decided that I couldn't handle it anymore and I started getting prepped for a C-section I kept apologizing and she said everything was gonna be alright. I get emotional when I think about my daughter's birth because so much didn't go as planned. I had to be put under for the C-section and missed out on the first moments of her life but when I think about my labor experience, I am comforted by the fact that I had such an amazing nurse guiding me through the experience.

I was heartbroken when I didn't see Zoily during my time in mother/baby because I was never truly able to say Thank You. I asked nearly every nurse I saw if she was on the floor each day I was there. My husband too wanted to offer his appreciation for getting us through the joyful, yet tough birth of our first child.

Many of my Kaiser nurses were stellar but my memories of Zoily remain in the most positive of my entire birth experience. I highly recommend her for this honor without reservation.