Finding Joy After a Difficult Delivery

After spending most of the sweltering summer in her third trimester, Kristy Gilmore was happy to go into labor in late July. She wondered if her first baby would be a boy or a girl. But trouble arose when it came time for her to push. 

“I could just tell that something wasn’t right,” she said. 

Kristy and her husband, Phillip, couldn’t have planned for the turn their delivery took that day.

An Emergency Decision  

The couple had a smooth start at Soin Medical Center, a Kettering Health full-service hospital in Beavercreek, Ohio, United States. But after three hours of pushing with no progress, Kristy spiked a fever. Her baby’s heart rate began to climb. As a nurse, Kristy knew her labor had taken a turn for the worse. 

“I could see my vital signs,” she said. “I could see the fetal monitor on her. I could tell what her heart rate was doing.”

Her nurse and midwife brought in physician Halei Wong, who called for a C-section. Extra nurses appeared in Kristy’s delivery room, preparing her for the operation. It was obvious that they had done this before. 

“It seemed almost like a choreographed dance,” she said. 

Their confidence eased Kristy’s nerves. But more complications arose during the C-section. 

Kristy began hemorrhaging. A nurse asked Phillip to leave the operating room as Kristy went under general anesthesia. The last thing she heard was the tension in Wong’s voice as she worked hard to save both Kristy and her baby.

Getting Answers

Two hours later, Kristy woke up in her delivery room. Other than the nurse administering a platelet blood transfusion, Kristy was alone. 

“I just remember looking at her and telling her I was super scared,” she said. 

The nurse explained her baby had been breached, which caused the complications. She also told Kristy that she lost a lot of blood during the surgery and had her first blood transfusion while under anesthesia. 

Phillip came in from the special care nursery and showed Kristy a video of their newborn, who needed a “continuous positive airway pressure” (CPAP) machine for the night but was otherwise healthy. And he shared exciting news: they had a baby girl. Kristy watched the video of their daughter — Edna Joy — and felt a sense of relief.

A Reason for It All 

Baby Edna spent two days in the special care nursery and then joined her parents in the hospital as Kristy recovered. Two days later, the family went home together. 

Despite everything, Kristy feels Edna arrived at exactly the right time.

“Everyone who was put there the night that we had her was there for a reason,” she said. “And it was just orchestrated by something higher than we could have ever imagined.” 

Kristy and Phillip now enjoy all of the surprises that come with parenthood, crediting their delivery for teaching them how to adapt to any situation. 

And little Edna Joy lives up to her middle name. 

“She is the happiest, most joyful five-and-a-half-month-old baby,” Kristy said. “She is just wonderful.”

About Kettering Health

Kettering Health is a Seventh-day Adventist health system based in Kettering, Ohio. “In the spirit of the Seventh-day Adventist healthcare ministry, we strive to be innovative and to convey God’s love in a caring environment,” the network’s website says. The promise in the network’s mission is “to follow in the steps of Jesus by guiding every person to their best health.” The system includes 14 medical centers and more than 120 outpatient facilities run by more than 15,000 employees.

The original version of this story was posted by Kettering Health.