Answering the Call: COVID-19 didn't stop maternity care nurses

By Christie Netherton, Messenger-Inquirer
April 1, 2022

Mariah Case, labor and delivery nurse, stands inside a patient delivery room on Thursday at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital.
Photo by Alan Warren, Messenger-Inquirer | awarren@messenger-inquirer.com

For labor and delivery nurse Mariah Case, working in maternity care, especially during COVID-19, was never a choice. It was what she was going to do and has been proud to do throughout the past two years.

Case began her nursing career at Owensboro Health Regional Hospital in maternity care just before the beginning of COVID-19. When she first started, she said maternity was an upbeat and bustling floor in the hospital with people constantly coming in and out of rooms and visiting with new mothers and mothers-to-be. The pandemic, however, changed things quite a bit. Patients on the maternity floor were quickly limited to one visitor, which was mostly limited to significant others. It created some barriers, Case said, for patients to get that support from loved ones, like their own mothers and their other children during one of the most significant moments of their lives. The experience was not only different for mothers, but it was also a change for nurses on the floor, Case said, who took on a more emotionally supportive role for patients who were maybe missing the memorable moment they expected to have with loved ones and who needed some reassurance.

Reassurance, however, was also difficult, she said, especially at the beginning of the pandemic when so much was unknown about the virus.

There was FaceTime and video-capable phones available for patients, but it still was not exactly the same. “I feel like sometimes, the patients are almost wanting to look to their mom for support, but she can’t be here, so I just feel like it’s more just trying to help meet their needs,” she said. “I do what I can just to make my patient’s stay a little bit better, and kind of lift that burden, even though they’re being isolated, just trying to make that a little more of a positive experience for them.” That experience was made even more difficult for the 215 mothers testing positive for COVID-19 who were placed in negative pressure rooms and had limited face time with their newborns to combat exposure. Nurses not only had to take on an additional support role for mothers, but were also dealing with concern about their own exposure to the virus and potential spreading that to their loved ones and family, or even other patients, Case said, all amidst a national healthcare shortage, which certainly affected maternity care.

Case said in January, she, along with at least 60% of the staff in labor and delivery contracted COVID-19. But, she said, the show had to go on, despite the pandemic. “I still show up and do my job. You know, people aren’t going to stop having babies,” she said. Department manager Robin Locher said COVID-19 is not the first and will not be the last thing that healthcare workers are exposed to in their field, either. They are exposed to things every single day, she said. “That’s also what nurses do. At the beginning of my career there was AIDS, so we’ve gone through all of that,” she said. “There’s so many diseases, but they come to work and they take care of the patients every single day.” Case said as nurses continued working 12-hour shifts, picking up additional hours to ensure labor and delivery was staffed; co-workers became like a second family and everyone had to learn how to lean on one another. “I rely on my co-workers for all kinds of support. I feel like we’ve all been really adaptive and have tried to make it the best experience for our patients,” she said. “We still come in because we love what we do and want to help take care of our patients the best we can.” As far as staffing shortages, Case said while there has been a lot of turnover during the pandemic, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel as new grads start getting hired. Additionally, she said physicians in maternity care have provided some grace with scheduling where they can as far as inducements and C-section procedures. Locher said the unity the staff and physicians have showed in supporting one another has kept everything going.

“No one else can come to our floor and work, so we can’t pull from anybody; so our staff have to staff our unit and they have been phenomenal about picking up the extra call,” she said. “We have the most amazing staff.” Despite the extra challenges created by COVID-19, Case said she, and many others in the healthcare field, do what they do because they are passionate about it and want to help others, and that is what she will continue to do. “I don’t think twice about it,” she said. “I love my job. I could not see myself doing anything different. It’s just one of those things that … I feel like healthcare workers, we have to be adaptive because things are constantly changing. You never what’s going to walk through the door.”

Christie Netherton, cnetherton@messenger-inquirer.com, 270-691-7360