An Unexpected NICU Stay: Charity’s Story

Charity was pregnant with her sixth child and chose to work with Dr. Eileen Joyce and Danette Foster, CNM at Ashley Regional Women’s Health in Vernal, Utah.

When Charity went to her 38 week prenatal appointment with Dr. Joyce they discovered her baby was still breech.  That same day, Dr. Joyce, with the assistance of Dr. Kayden Barber and the nurses, made accommodations to address the issue and completed an unplanned procedure of external cephalic version. They were able to get everything taken care of and Charity safely went home and awaited the birth of her baby.

When Charity went into labor, she arrived at the Ashley Regional Women’s Center and was warmly greeted by the nurses. The delivery went well. Unfortunately, as Charity was getting ready to discharge, they received news that the baby had an infection and would be transferred to the Ashley Regional NICU for a week to be monitored and treated with a course of antibiotics.

Charity was upset by the news, especially since this meant the baby would be in the NICU over Christmas. She explained, “The nurses were wonderful and gave me cheerful encouragement. They assured me everything would be ok in the NICU and I should go home for a while and visit my other kids.”

Over the course of the week the baby started doing better. On Christmas Eve, Charity left the NICU for a couple of hours. When she arrived back at the hospital, she found a sweet card that had her baby’s footprints. Charity said of the experience, “The week went by in a blur, but I was well taken care of and was sad in a way that I felt like I was leaving family.”

Although the extended NICU stay was unexpected and scary, Charity felt comforted by the nurses throughout her entire experience. She expressed her gratitude to all the nurses who helped, answered questions and made her stay comfortable. She also provided a special thanks, “to Heidi for following up and checking on me days after discharge!”

Charity’s heartwarming message to all the Ashley Regional Women’s Center staff who helped her and her baby was, “May you all continue to bless and help the lives of those families who come through those doors. God is good and was helping those sweet angels take care of those babies.”