Growing With The Fields

Congrats Mom, You Did It!

In 2019, she chose the Ivinson Medical Group team and OB/GYN Dr. Derek Ewell for her prenatal care. Progressing through her pregnancy as planned, Caity entered motherhood a little haphazardly when delivery and the very first days with a newborn did not go quite according to plan. Baby girl Murphy, was determined to come on her own time. When it came time to deliver, things stalled up. 

“Murphy didn’t want to come,” Caity recalls. Originally, Caity had planned for a vaginal delivery with an epidural. When push came to shove on the former labor and delivery unit at Ivinson, Caity hit a wall in her progress. ​“I didn’t know what to expect,” she said, reflecting on her long labor. ​“At the time, I was stubborn and just wanted to get the baby out. I had wanted a c‑section and Dr. Ewell told me ​‘no’, he said ​‘you made it this far and you can do it.’ I hated him at that moment, but I am very grateful for him now.”

Avoiding a cesarean, Caity had a vacuum extraction delivery, but the hurdles did not end there. Murphy had jaundice, a buildup of bilirubin in her bloodstream that causes the skin to yellow. Jaundice occurs in 60 percent of infants and is caused by the liver not removing bilirubin efficiently. Murphy’s jaundice levels were significant and required additional hospital care. Caity, while discharged herself, remained on the unit for several more days with baby Murphy. 

In that time, Caity and her growing family came to know the former labor and delivery unit very well. A little under a week old, Murphy was discharged home, healthy and happy. 

Growing Through It

In 2022, Caity prepared for her second baby, this time with more tools in her tool belt. She knew some tips and tricks, had met some major mom milestones and was glowing with confidence thanks to the help of her entire prenatal care team. 

In her second pregnancy, the women’s health team at Ivinson had grown, adding a new OB/GYN, Dr. Samantha Herriott and a certified nurse midwife, Liz Rowe. Finding out that she had gestational diabetes, Caity was closely monitored over her pregnancy.

“I had a wonderful experience with all the doctors. We met everyone at Ivinson Medical Group,” Caity said of her prenatal care. ​“I met with both Dr. Herriott and Liz Rowe for the majority of my pregnancy. Liz helped me understand diabetes and getting my diet under control.”

Prior to working with the IMG team, Caity admits she was not very familiar with certified nurse midwives or how their care can differ from a traditional OB/GYN. Caity met with Liz at her first initial intake during her second pregnancy and spoke with her about what midwives do and what interventions they support. 

“Before working with Liz, when I thought of a midwife, I thought of homebirth,” Caity explained of her prior misconceptions of midwifery. ​“But Liz is a different kind of birthing partner, she provides the same great high level of care I received with Dr. Ewell. She did a great job of letting us know what to expect.” 

Navigating her second pregnancy with a gestational diabetes diagnosis was difficult for Caity. She continues to live with prediabetes after her second pregnancy 

“It was pretty upsetting to find out I had gestational diabetes,” Caity said. ​“I didn’t have it with my first and I had a lot of guilt. But the IMG team handled it so well. The doctors were always available for calls, they were emailing me to check in on my blood sugars, they were really on top of everything.” 

Continuing to meet with Dr. Herriott and Liz, Caity made connections with each of the IMG women’s health providers that participated in her care.

“I met with Dr. Westbrook about my anxiety and she asked if I would be interested in therapy,” Caity recalled. ​“I told her that it gave me more anxiety and she was really understanding. She told me, ​‘I think moms need more time in the day- not more appointments’ and that really made me feel heard.”

Welcome our New Addition

While Caity was ready to unveil a new chapter in motherhood, the team at Ivinson was getting ready to unveil a different kind of delivery, the new Women and Children Center at Ivinson.

The Women and Children Center opened its doors to patient care on June 6, 2022. 23 days later, Caity and Cory came back to Ivinson and delivered their second daughter, Reagan. 

Reagan was one of 234 of babies born in the new Women and Children Center from June to December 31, 2022. The new center is home to labor and delivery, mother/​baby care, gynecology, pediatrics and the special care nursery. 

Due to her gestational diabetes, Caity was scheduled to be induced before reaching 40 weeks with Dr. Samantha Herriott. 

“We had a wonderful experience with Dr. Herriott,” Caity said. ​“She was awesome and I felt more confident in my delivery because of her. She was really encouraging, letting me know I can do it.”

For Caity and Cory, things were very different from the first time they arrived at Ivinson to welcome baby Murphy in 2019. This time, they arrived alone, no grandmas or other family in tow. A stark difference from the caravan of family members that awaited the arrival of baby Murphy.

On the old unit, family that awaited the arrival of a new baby would wait in a small waiting alcove next to one of the labor and delivery rooms. For many families, this waiting area was cramped and for some laboring moms, the waiting space was too close to the action.

When awaiting the arrival of baby Murphy, Caity labored in the room right next to the family waiting space. Recalling the discomfort of laboring amongst her family and friends, Caity’s family was sent to wait outside of the labor and delivery unit and received text updates of their progress.

In the new Woman and Children Center, there are three dedicated family waiting spaces on the unit itself and one outside of the unit, right off of the elevator. Each space is built to meet various needs, one built smaller and enclosed to provide privacy, one built larger with children play spaces in mind and another dedicated family dining space providing families an area to store food, heat up meals, and eat away from the patient room. 

“This go around we didn’t have anyone come due to COVID but it definitely would have been much more comfortable having those spaces. My husband was in love with the family dining area, he was happy.” 

Unlike her first time in labor, Caity felt more at ease this time around. She arrived at the Women and Children Center to be induced, six hours and one big push later, she was holding her baby Reagan. 

The new labor and delivery rooms were increased in size, amenities and several comforts while maintaining efficiency and functionality for the nurses, staff and providers that work in these areas. Larger patient rooms were created with patients in mind and to accommodate families. 

“It didn’t feel like a hospital room,” Caity said. ​“There was more space to move around, it was so much brighter and my husband wasn’t as cramped. Having the larger bathroom was super nice. I didn’t use the tub at all but I have heard that quite a few people have enjoyed it. For me, the biggest thing was not having to step into the shower, being able to walk in. That was very painful before.”

Patient bathrooms in the Women and Children Center were built larger to accommodate families and staff assisting patients. One new luxury in the labor and delivery rooms are the new jacuzzi bathtubs available to ease laboring pain. Adjacent to the tubs are walk in showers with built in, fold-down seating, a more popular choice for postpartum patients.

“Because the Women and Children Center at Ivinson is a smaller center and has less patients than a bigger facility, we really got to know our nurses. I recognized some of the nurses from when I had my first and everyone is always so wonderful.” Caity said of what makes delivering at Ivinson a special experience. ​“We never felt rushed, they came in and talked with us. I really felt like they cared about us and we were not part of their shift.”

A Healing Environment

For the staff and providers who make up the Women and Children Center, the upgrades have been long awaited and are something the team is very proud to share with their patients.

“The Women and Children Center team work every day to provide outstanding, compassionate care,” explains Clinical Manager Nicole Vasquez. ​“Now, our facilities match the exceptional care being provided to our patients. Everything on our new unit was designed with comfort and safety in mind. We want our patients and their families to feel welcomed and cared for when they come through our doors and our new unit does just that.”

The Women and Children Center, located on the third floor of the main hospital building is a completely secure unit. This unit is built with a brand new entrance and patient rooms facing to the west, with views of War Memorial Stadium and the Snowy Range Mountains. The interior walls have windows that look down into the hospital atrium.

“The bright floors feel a lot better for healing” Caity said speaking from experience of spending a week in the hospital with baby Murphy. ​“We used to do laps on the old floor and there aren’t really windows to look out. It was nice in the new area to be able to overlook the rest of the hospital from the interior part of the unit or overlook the mountains from our room. I was ready to go home, but if we would have had to stay a couple extra days, it wouldn’t be the worst that could happen.” 

Other new features of the Women and Children Center include a brand new triage room, dedicated to patients that are not yet admitted to the floor, a new lactation space and increased safety and isolation capabilities on the unit built with COVID precautions in mind. New staff locker rooms, break rooms and dedicated provider on-call sleep rooms are some of the new features available to staff and providers that provide care to patients on the Women and Children’s Center. 

Women’s prenatal education classes are now held in the new education and conference room outside of the unit, the Sugarloaf conference room. This space allows families attending prenatal education to become familiar with the space before they arrive to deliver their baby in the coming months. 

Care That Feels Personal

“It was nice going into delivery to know where I am delivering and who it will be with,” Caity said, finding comfort in using a community hospital for her care. ​“We did tours of both units before we had each baby. With our first we did the PAVE appointment and had a tour of the old unit and the second time we were able to attend the grand opening and tour the unit before Reagan arrived. It’s nice knowing that it’s this beautiful new place and having all these amenities and a lot more options for delivery that we could try out if we wanted to.”

Pre-Admission Visit and Education (PAVE) appointments are available to all expecting parents. Recommended beginning the 35^th week of pregnancy, your PAVE appointment allows you to meet one-on-one with Women and Children Center staff, review your health profile, consent documentation, birth plan and tour the unit. 

The Fields family, was among one of the first families to tour the new Women and Children Center unit at its grand opening. Less than a month later, they were among some of the first families to deliver on the brand new unit.

For Caity, there was never a question of who she would use for her prenatal care or where she would deliver. As her family has expanded and grown, so has the team and facilities at Ivinson. 

“I think that Ivinson does a great job of providing all the services that a larger hospital would,” Caity said. During her hospital stay with both baby Murphy and baby Reagan, Caity remembers the tremendous impact that the nursing staff had on her stay.

“The delivery nurses really helped us. They had taught me how to pump in the hospital and that is definitely something I would not have known. I think I would have had to watch some videos and figure out what I was doing. Nursing with my first, we used the lactation consultants every single day while I was in the hospital trying to get the hang of it.”

With baby Reagan, Caity felt more at ease in motherhood but felt comfortable asking for help when she needed it. Although things like nursing came easier with Reagan, Caity found comfort in knowing that babies have their own timeline.

“Everything you expect to happen probably won’t and it is okay to just go with it. I think a big piece of knowledge I carried with me from my first pregnancy to the second is the pain going through labor is totally worth it,” Caity said reflecting on childbirth. ​“The biggest gain for me between the two deliveries was the confidence. Knowing that your kids are going to love you know matter what. If you mess up, if you do things differently than what you had planned in your head, they still turn out okay.”

expecting? let us help

Prepare for delivery day with Ivinson. Let our team of experts support you every step of the way. Ivinson’s prenatal education classes are free to everyone and taught from Ivisnon’s women’s health team every month. Consider registering for a Pre-Admission Visit and Education (PAVE) appointment with our Women and Children Center team.