This June, we celebrated our 10th anniversary of our Women’s Life Center. To date, we have delivered over 44,105 babies and counting! As part of our celebration, we asked moms to write in their stories of how their little ones were brought into the world at Southern Regional Medical Center.

Grandma Kathy writes: May 16 was going to be a regular work day for me as the charge nurse in the mother/baby unit at Southern Regional. Instead of my alarm going off, it was a phone call that woke me from my son. His wife was in labor and they were on the way to the Women’s Life Center to have their second child.

By the time I arrived to the labor and delivery department, Chance was resting quietly in his dad’s arms sound asleep. Chance’s dad Craig was so proud to be holding his first son. I was proud, too and a flood of memories came back to me from 26 years ago when I held Craig in my own arms right here at SRMC, long before the Women’s Life Center was built.

It is such an honor to be able to work in the same place my children and now my grandchildren have been born. Southern Regional is part of my family and my community and I am thankful to be a part of this organization.

This June, we celebrated our 10th anniversary of our Women’s Life Center. To date, we have delivered over 44,105 babies and counting! As part of our celebration, we asked moms to write in their stories of how their little ones were brought into the world at Southern Regional Medical Center.

Mom Courtney writes:  My husband and I have been blessed with wonderful children, both born at Southern Regional Medical Center. The first pregnancy was difficult…

When my second pregnancy passed by so gracefully and uneventfully, I assumed it was the better of the two. That could not have been any further from the truth!

It started out perfectly well. Conception occurred much quicker than with our first child. No nausea, no bleeding, no complications, no discomforts. I worked two jobs right up until my due date.

My water broke at 4 a.m. on the day of my scheduled C-section. Shortly after being admitted, pitocin augmentation was initiated and a forebag of amniotic fluid was ruptured by Dr. Royster in order to place internal monitors for better monitoring of the fetal heart rate and contraction pattern.

Immeadiately following this procedure, I felt a warm flood. I assumed it was the fluid but could tell by the look on my husband’s face that I was wrong. It was blood…a lot of it. My husband said, “There is no heart rate, is there?” And Dr. Royster was off – rapidly pushing the bed to the operating room.

I saw concern, fear and tears in the eyes of my co-workers at SRMC. I heard Dr. Royster say, “This baby MUST be out in less than a minute” before I breathed in the anesthesia. Later when I woke,  I was informed my daughter had coded for nine minutes and was in critical condition in the NICU. It was determined that all the blood I felt earlier was not my own, but my daughter’s. She lost over half of her blood supply.

Arianna had High Output Renul Faiulure, an elevated creatinine level, a pneumothorax requiring a chest tube, was intubated, was on many medication and later had a seizure. She was born eight pounds, ten ounces but eventually weighed 11 pounds because she accumulated so much fluid. She was the biggest baby in the NICU – she looked as if she were about to burst!

Over the next few days, it was decided that the diagnosis for the complications was Vasa Previa, a rare condition that causes fetal vessels to rupture when amniotic membranes rupture (when the water breaks). It was a blessing that the rupture of vessels occurred when the forebag was broken and I was at the hospital rather when my initial bag of water ruptured at home. Had it happened at home, my child would not be here with us today.

Days passed and still no change. My two-year-old continued to ask when she could meet her baby sister. Long days and tearful nights passed as we sat at home with no baby. We live 45 miles from the hospital and traveled back and forth each day to visit. Arianna was finally released about two weeks later. Ironically, she had returned to her birth weight and came home the same size she would have had on her birth day.

The next two years were full of many doctor visits…eye specialists, cardiologists, nephrologists, neurologists, etc. She had high blood pressure and was on medication for it for one year. A special program called Babies Can’t Wait came to our home for monthly evaluations and therapy while monitoring her milestones. This was all very challenging and tiresome but all that mattered to us was that our baby was alive. This would not be so without the wonderful attentive and caring staff of the Labor and Delivery and the NICU departments at Southern Regional.

We are very grateful that Dr. Royster, the OB tech Cynthia Waters and the nurses of Labor and Delivery responded so quickly. Our daughter was out within six minutes of Dr. Royster using the ultrasound machine in the labor room and transferring to the operation room. That is remarkable timing!

We are also very grateful for all the NICU nurses and Drs. Ojadi, Velez and Ade for treating our child like she was their own and for constantly keeping us updated and educated. ost of all, we are very grateful we have not only a healthy child but an above-average, smart and beautiful daughter. It gives me great pride to speak to my patients honestly when recommending and praising the Women’s Life Center, not only as a staff member but as a patient and parent. I will never have a baby elsewhere. Thank you, Lord and thank you, Southern Regional!

This June, we celebrated our 10th anniversary of our Women’s Life Center. To date, we have delivered over 44,105 babies and counting! As part of our celebration, we asked moms to write in their stories of how their little ones were brought into the world at Southern Regional Medical Center.

Dakota’s mom writes: It is an incredibly life-changing moment when you get to hold your newborn for the first time after a complicated pregnancy and after you were told it would not be likely you would even have children.

The path of infertility is so uncertain and filled with moments of hope, despair, laughter and often times, tears. I have referred to infertility as the ghost – it can haunt the childless every waking hour and even in your dreams.

Our first moment with Dakota took place March 7, 2005 at 3:31 p.m. My husband Chuck was with me when I check in for the scheduled C-section and for the most part, I felt an overwhelming calm. We had made it through 42 weeks and all the complications and worries of loss could now be put behind us.

In a short time, we heard our daughter cry which brought me and my husband to tears. We had made it! We were parents! We had a daughter, named Dakota, who weighed in at nine pounds, two-and-a-half ounces. I could not wait to get my hands on her but had to allow the doctors to finish my surgery and she was taken to the nursery.

It was a truly incredible moment when, later in my room, my husband and I took turns holding this little girl for whom we had hoped and prayed for for so many months. A few years later, I realized the true miracle Dakota was, as my husband and I were never able to conceive again.

My husband and I put away the fertility ghost for good in 2010 when we brought home Dakota’s little sister Shiloh from Inner Mongolia, China. Now, with our two girls, we can call our family complete!

This June, we celebrated our 10th anniversary of our Women’s Life Center. To date, we have delivered over 44,105 babies and counting! As part of our celebration, we asked moms to write in their stories of how their little ones were brought into the world at Southern Regional Medical Center.

Sainaren’s grandma writes: October 22, 2006 was an exciting day for me. Knowing that the Lord had laid to rest one of my own, I couldn’t help but think He was giving me a double dose of goodness by giving me another grandchild.

Sainaren (Naren, for short) weighed in at five pounds and then some. He looked, at first, like his big sister Nariya but once he opened his eyes, I saw he was just like his daddy.

Naren is now five years old and is in preschool. He loves to act silly and have fun. Naren is fluent in two languages and is a very fast learner. I am so proud to have this young man for a grandson because he is sweet, loving and considerate of others.