A nurse at Holy Family Hospital in Spokane says working in the labor and delivery department is keeping her smiling while dealing with the challenges of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I get to bring babies into the world, and that’s really fun. Ninety-nine percent of the time it’s very happy and exciting,” said Mariah Hopson.
Hopson has been a labor and delivery and NICU nurse for eight years. She said she’s had to hold on to the positive moments during the pandemic.
“It’s definitely new and keeping us on our toes,” she said.
To help protect their patients during the pandemic, Hopson and her team of nurses allow mothers to bring only one person in the delivery room.
Hopson said nurses are trying to be the extra support these mothers’ other family members would bring.
“We just do our best to fill in that role and to be there emotionally and spiritually, as well as all the medical stuff we do for them,” she said.
She said her general workflows have changed to make sure safety remains a priority. As the CDC releases new information on how hospitals should handle procedures during the pandemic, Hopson and her team have to stay updated on the recommendations.
“We’ve practiced what we should do in a C-section if we have a mom who’s positive,” Hopson said. “Right now the CDC is recommending that we separate mom and baby if the mom is positive. So there’s some things that we are doing differently.”
But amid all the recognition she’s received during National Nurses’ Week and as an essential worker, Hopson said she’s just doing her job.
“Nurses are kinda in the middle of everything. We do a little bit of social work and speech therapy and a little bit of medicine and a little bit of everything,” she said. “I just want to throw out a, ‘Good work,’ to all of my fellow coworkers out there."