This was my third birth, and Kimber exceeded every nurse I have ever had – by a wide margin. She has a rare ability to move from a complete stranger to a level-ten trusted person within moments. I’m not sure how she does it, but she steps effortlessly into a role of calm, safety, and kindness.

Kimber asked thoughtful, strategic questions about my previous births – how long I pushed, whether the baby came out easily, and what challenges I’d had before. Using that information, she recognized that it was not yet time for me to start pushing. Instead, she performed what my husband and I now lovingly call the “shake the apples from the tree” maneuver to help move the baby down. We will laugh about it for years, but it was physically demanding work for her, and she never once acted like it was. That intervention significantly advanced my baby’s position and dramatically reduced my pushing time – something I believe was vital to my son’s outcome.

My son became stuck in my pelvis for approximately two minutes and ultimately required the help of multiple nurses, with the NICU team stepping in to assist. His APGAR score improved from a 2 to a 7. I truly believe that I needed to push for my usual two hours; without Kimber's earlier intervention, my baby's condition could have been far worse.

During the delivery, the room became chaotic. Multiple nurses were trying to reassure me that everything was fine, but their stress was evident. Kimber, however, looked me directly in the eye and calmly said, “He is here. He is breathing. We will talk about everything else later.” In that moment, she shifted my mind from panic to trust – from fear to knowing that answers would come when I was ready. That emotional grounding was incredibly meaningful to me.

After my baby was taken to the NICU, I passed out while trying to go to the bathroom. Kimber and my husband supported me through it. A short time later, I began vomiting uncontrollably, collapsing onto the floor, and Kimber physically held me upright through it – likely ruining her own pants in the process. She never once made me feel embarrassed. She simply cared for me.

Kimber kept me in the maternity unit for six hours beyond the standard timeframe because she knew I was not stable enough to be transferred to postpartum. She was right – I ultimately required a blood transfusion. When the lab repeatedly had issues processing my bloodwork, Kimber persisted, sending three separate draws until the labs were processed correctly. She advocated for me relentlessly.

Kimber’s clinical judgment, physical effort, emotional presence, and unwavering advocacy quite literally changed the course of my birth experience, and my have saved my son from a much worse outcome. I will never forget her, and I cannot imagine a more deserving nurse for this recognition.