Caring Nurses and Friendly Faces

Caring Nurses and friendly faces become family at Dupont. When people take such good care of you, you remember them. Forever.

I‘m Cara and I’ve had my two babies, Jasper who is two and Levi who is one, at Dupont Hospital. After I came to visit family members here for the births of their children, I was so impressed with the facilities; I knew there was nowhere else I wanted to go to have my babies.

I found out I was pregnant with Jasper and we went to visit the doctor for the first big milestone of my pregnancy: the ultrasound. We just couldn’t wait a day longer to find out if we’d have a boy or a girl — the ultrasound showed a baby boy! After that, it was just all excitement. We spent every moment, especially during the prenatal classes, imagining when our baby would actually arrive. When my water finally broke, we came in to Dupont Hospital. Because we had pre-registered, they had everything ready for our arrival. We felt so welcomed as we settled in.

At the hospital, I was waiting for the labor to progress, but after awhile we were all still waiting for it to advance a little faster. Eventually, the doctor decided a C-section would be the best way to deliver the baby.  Even though that wasn’t the plan, I knew it was what we had to do. My nurse, Anna, helped make the transition easier for me. Though she’d already been with me for the twelve hours of her shift, she stayed on longer for the C-section. By that point, she wanted to meet the baby as much as I did! It was awesome and meant so much that she would want to stay with me and comfort me. Really, everyone on staff at Dupont was reassuring and there was never a sense of panic during the delivery. Even after the delivery, the staff continued to care for me. Later, I was in my recovery room and the instructor from our breastfeeding class came over to see the baby and congratulate us. To see her friendly, familiar face was great and just another way Dupont comforted us. 

The Dupont nurses made an undeniable difference in my whole recovery experience after my son’s birth. They couldn’t have been any better. They made sure I had enough sleep and that I was being looked after, which was sweet. Both the baby and I were so well taken care of. The night before we left, Anna talked to me about letting the baby sleep in the nursery. ‘Just let us take care of the baby tonight,’ she said. She made me feel like the baby was in really good hands in the nursery. I knew he was being well cared for and I was getting the rest I needed to take care of him when we went home.

Throughout my entire recovery, whenever I needed something, I could just pick up the phone and dial my nurse’s number. She always answered immediately and knew exactly what I needed or how to answer my questions. I could just say, ‘Anna, I need this,’ and she came running. The nurses are wonderful at Dupont’s Birthplace and they love seeing the babies, being a part of the new families and taking care of everyone.

When I came back to the hospital to have my second child, I saw the nurses walk into my room before the C-section. They were the same nurses that I’d had when I had my first son! What an awesome feeling to see their friendly faces. Even Anna, who had taken such great care of me the first time, walked through door. Anna came over and asked how my first son Jasper was doing—she remembered us!  It was a relief and absolutely reassuring to see them again, greeting and welcoming us. The whole staff just goes above and beyond the call of duty: during the Levi’s C-section delivery, the anesthesiologist grabbed my camera and took pictures of Levi being born, and then of Tim and I with the baby. He took a lot of pictures for me that were really great and that we would have never captured without him. He just jumped in so Tim and I could enjoy the time with Levi.

When we were leaving the hospital, we had a small moment of fear—‘We have to do this on our own now?’ We were excited to go home as a family, but anxious to see how we would do on our own without the nurses. They just helped us so much while we were there and were so excellent.  That’s what makes Dupont different to me: the really high-level care, both medically and personally. It’s because of the Dupont doctors and nurses that our boys are both healthy and we’re all happy. They made having a baby a great experience.