There could be something in the water on the Labor and Delivery Unit at Methodist Hospital, considering 17 nurses have been pregnant alongside one another and the patients they care for.
“Some of my patients have gone through their whole stay and everyone caring for them is also pregnant,” Hayley Seal, RN laughed. “They’ve been like ‘wait a minute, my last nurse is pregnant too!’”
The due dates for the nurses span from December 2021 to July. Over the last several months, break room baby showers and chatter about baby names and the best newborn products have become the new normal. Seal gave birth to her child in February, and she had her colleagues by her side during the entire experience.
“When one of us comes in to have our baby, the room is always decorated,” Seal said. “It’s funny, you can go down our baby registries for everyone and if we find a product that someone likes on their registry it’s on everyone’s registry.”
Like Seal, Leslie Maulit, RN says the joy and comradery the pregnancies have created among her colleagues is something she will never forget.
“It’s honestly been really fun. I feel like we’ve had kind of a sisterhood of traveling pants,” Maulit joked. “We send baby stuff to each other and give each other advice. I know the girls who are on maternity leave right now are giving each other advice and they’re all awake at the same time.”
As labor and delivery nurses, each nurse enjoys being a part of their patients’ journeys into parenthood. They say their pregnancies allowed them to develop an even deeper understanding of what their patients may be going through, improving the care they are able to provide.
“This definitely helped with my ability to connect even deeper with my patients, especially since I had complications with my delivery and got readmitted [to the hospital],” Seal said. “I’ve really been able to identify with the patients that are going through the same thing. I think it’s helped with the type of patient care I can give.”
Hospital leaders have been busy bringing in skilled support to help staff an incredibly busy unit, while each new mom takes her deserved time away from work to care for her newborn.