Kate Huvane Gamble, Managing Editor, hsCIO.com
“We’re going to deliver your babies tonight.”
It wasn’t at all what I expected to hear — or was prepared to hear. At 33 weeks, I wasn’t ready to have my twins, but they were ready to be born.
Four days earlier, I was at a routine appointment when my doctor noticed a deceleration in one of the babies’ heartbeats and sent me to the hospital for monitoring. Two follow-up appointments later, I went back to the hospital to undergo more tests and much more monitoring. Finally, my doctors informed me that the best option was to undergo an emergency C-section. They explained that there are times when babies are better off on the outside, and this was one of those times. Once my husband Dan and I got over the initial shock, we were on board. We trusted my doctors to make the right call.
And despite being born early, my son Austin and my daughter Scarlett are both doing well. The nurses and neonatologists at the special care nursery at CentraState Medical Center are taking excellent care of them. Dan and I trust them to look after our babies.
If there’s one thing I’ve really learned in the past few weeks, it’s that we as patients put an enormous amount of trust in clinicians. We make major life decisions based on what they decide, and we count on them to deliver the care that we need.
That’s not a small thing.
In fact, it’s something that should always be top of mind when decisions are being made about everything from staffing to ensuring that systems are user-friendly and are able to speak to each other. It’s all about making it as easy as possible for clinicians to do their jobs.
The other thing that’s really stood out to me about this whole experience is the generosity that people have shown, whether it’s by volunteering to shuttle me back and forth to the hospital, bringing food to the house, or just calling to check in. I realize how lucky I am to have these people in my life — they’ve all helped make a crazy and stressful time much more manageable.
One of those people is Anthony Guerra, who couldn’t have been more supportive, despite the fact he had to start carrying a heavier workload much earlier than anticipated.
And of course there’s Dan, who has been there for me in more ways than I can count.
So as I get ready to take my maternity leave — effective Monday, June 25 — I want to thank everyone who has been there for me and my family, including the amazing nurses and doctors at CentraState, who went above and beyond to earn my trust.
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