24 pregnant at once. How a team of Fort Worth labor and delivery nurses bonded over shared motherhood
By Madison Sawyer
Click here for updates on this story
FORT WORTH, Texas (KTVT) — A Fort Worth hospital is in the business of bringing babies into the world, but that work is getting a lot more personal.
At one point, 24 labor and delivery nurses at Andrews Women’s Hospital at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center were all expecting babies of their own.
Lauren Mazac, the Nurse Manager for Labor & Delivery at the hospital, says the official number of pregnant nurses, at one point, was hard to pin down.
“Honestly, I’m finding out about more and more people each day,” Mazac said. “It’s been fun!”
It’s a unique chapter for the hospital that highlights a special sisterhood of nurses, moving from caring for expectant moms to becoming expectant moms themselves.
“It’s challenging, but we all support each other,” Savannah Barnes, one of the nurses, said. “We have a great team here, and everybody helps each other. So, when I was nine months pregnant, two days before I delivered, everybody was helping me, and I can’t wait to repay all the same things for the ones who are pregnant when I come back in a few weeks.”
Some of the nurses, like Barnes and Chala Ford, have already given birth to their new bundles of joy.
“It has been a wonderful experience; I actually got to deliver Savannah and her last two babies,” Ford says. “We went to nursing school together and grew up as best friends, and now we get to have two best friends.”
The labor and delivery unit is full of experts on childbirth, and now they are putting that expertise to the test.
“We are a Level IV facility; we do tons of training here to make sure we are ready for all the emergencies,” Mazac said. “I really feel like it is the safest place to have a baby, and I think all of our nurses know that and that’s why they come here.”
Dr. Jamie Erwin, Medical Director at Andrews Women’s Hospital, says most of the nurses are choosing to deliver their babies at the hospital where they work.
“You could deliver anywhere, and when you work here, and you see behind the curtain, you see the good, the bad, the ugly,” Erwin said. “And there’s just an immense level of trust when you want to be in the care of your coworkers, your colleagues, and it brings us closer together, makes us better.”
It’s a unique bond that has been growing right alongside the life growing inside their wombs.
“The sisterhood, it’s just so special getting to have your friends really watch you grow your baby and then get to be a part of the delivery, and one of the most precious parts of your life, and one of your friends is there to take care of you,” Mazac said. “It’s very special.”
That sisterhood, strengthened even more by a one-of-a-kind tradition, helps them remember the special chapter they share.
“We have a special delivery gown that most nurses wear,” Ford said.
“It’s really, really special to know that everyone delivered in that gown all these babies,” Barnes said. “We work together, we survive long shifts together while pregnant, supporting each other, and then we also get to wear (the gown) and put the (baby’s) initials on the gown.”
Over the years, there have been so many babies born to staff members that the original sisterhood of the traveling gown had to be retired.
“The initial gown had about 45 babies’ initials on there that we got monogrammed, that those babies were born in,” Mazac said. “So, that (gown) is hanging in the front of our unit, and now a new gown has started, and they all share the gown and deliver their baby in that gown.”
For these labor and delivery nurses, bringing babies into the world has always been part of the job.
“We take care of all women, we take care of very premature babies, women with very complicated pregnancies,” Erwin shared. “And these pregnant nurses, they continue to show up and bring their best selves day after day, working tirelessly, endlessly, and they just keep going day after day, and nothing is slowing them down. “
Now, they are just bringing that work home.
Of course, 24 nurses all expecting and delivering within months of each other comes with staffing challenges, but hospital leadership tells us they have a plan in place to keep staffing levels consistent.
“Not everyone is out at the same time, and we’ve got some PRN staff to cover the busy summer months,” Mazac said.
“Our nursing leadership has done a great job planning ahead,” Erwin says. “We have as-needed nurses that come in, and we have other nurses at other hospitals in the Baylor Scott and White system that are able to come in and help us.”
Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.