By Danielle Woods

Danielle, of Columbia, shared this story via the myBooneHealth.com online submission form. Click here to share your story.

Having been a nurse on the Joint Replacement Center at Boone Hospital Center for the last several years, I already knew that Boone made patient satisfaction a priority and was a leader in patient safety and quality patient care.

I had the opportunity to experience all of these things firsthand on August 3rd, 2012, when I delivered my daughter at Boone during the busiest month for births at our hospital in 90 years.

My wonderful OB-GYN, Dr. Sarah Franken, had informed me that my baby would be too big to safely deliver naturally, so I had a scheduled Cesarean Section. The night before I was scheduled to come in for my procedure, a labor and delivery nurse called to make sure I was doing well and that I did not have any questions she could help with — a little touch that makes an anxious patient feel at ease.

From the time I entered the doors under the “Boone Family Birthplace” signature blue awning, until the time I was discharged home, I experienced personalized, quality care. Each nurse was careful to introduce us to the other members of our care team so that we were comfortable with the other people coming in and out of our room.

Staff always made sure to pull curtains and shut doors to ensure my privacy, and washed their hands in front of us to make sure that we knew hand hygiene was a priority.

My wonderful labor and delivery nurse Shawna made sure to explain things to me in simple terms because she knew that even an experienced nurse is nervous and not thinking clearly when she becomes the patient. Thanks to her and the other amazing members of my operating room team, my husband and I felt at ease going through my C-Section.

My CRNA Alyssa even made sure to keep me talking during the procedure to keep my mind off of my worries and held my hand while my baby was born. Audrey Evelyn came in to the world at 12:30 p.m. on that Friday and weighed in at 10 pounds! Thanks to the loving care of the nursery team, my daughter was never separated from my husband when getting her first assessments, which meant so much to me.

Over the four days I spent at Boone, I got to meet several other truly amazing staff members (Kendra, Roxanne, and countless others that I should have written down to thank) who made sure that my every worry or need was met with an easy solution.

I would have never known that I delivered my daughter at such a busy time in the year! Nurses frequently sat and helped me nurse or talked about how I was recovering, never making it seem like she had anything else she needed to do (which as a nurse I know was not the case).

Nursing staff was careful to let me make my own decisions when it came to feeding my baby, letting my baby room-in, and the treatments given to my daughter. Letting me have a say in our decisions put my mind at ease and made me an important part of the care team. Even my meals were specialized to meet my wants and needs by the dietary specialists who spoke with me about what I liked eat and what I wanted to have on my meal tray at each meal.

Honestly, I could not have had a better experience having my baby girl. I know that as an expecting mother it is a difficult choice to decide where you will deliver your new baby and that going in to the delivery process is somewhat nerve wracking, but choosing Boone and allowing the staff there to assist me with bringing Audrey into the world was the best decision I could have made.

I love sharing my story with mothers-to-be and can’t wait to experience the quality care at Boone again in a few years when we expand our family again.