I’m writing to share about the excellent and exceptional care I was provided by Sharon Hawout, CNM. Sharon is a nurse midwife at Centra Medial Group (CMG) Women’s Center and provided me with the care that went above and beyond what I ever expected or even hoped for. From my very first appointment at 9 weeks pregnant to the birth of my son, Sharon provided me exceptional care. From the start of my care at CMG Sharon showed her interest, care, and compassion for me and our family.

I could share details of how Sharon sat with me and my husband for over 45 minutes during our first appointment, assuring she understood my health history, discussing what current fragile health status due to the pregnancy, and even taking time to fan connection in my social history over our shared love of running. Although Sharon came to know, during that first appointment, about my history of multiple pregnancy losses I'm sure she didn't know how much her time and detailed care helped decrease my anxiety and, racing heart. I could not have been more grateful for the time she spent with us during that first appointment.

Over the next 30 weeks, she continued to go above and beyond providing not only excellent medical care but also compassionate emotional support. I could detail how when I was crushed by yet another pregnancy complication, upon failing my first glucose test at 28 weeks, Sharon gently encouraged and reassured me. She provided teaching with terminology I understood and told of next steps options for additional testing and management period as she did, she helped my exhausted and discouraged self-feel as if I could truly overcome another unexpected bump in the road of pregnancy.

I could share about how Sharon, knowing my medical and social history well, questioned the “extreme fatigue” that other providers had shrugged off as normal for pregnancy and wrote for a panel of labs to be checked. Those labs revealed that my fatigue was in fact due to “unreadably low” ferritin levels. Because of her intuition and critical thinking, my low ferritin was discovered, and I was able to be treated with infusions to assure I did not go into labor and delivery anemic.

I could tell how Sharon sat with me at my 37-week appointment and read my birth plan line by line, stopping to seek clarification and talking through my desires and plan for the birth of our baby boy. All these stories show her excellence as a provider, but where she truly went above and beyond was during my labor and delivery.

I had hoped for weeks that my labor and delivery would happen on a shift where Sharon was on. And luckily, one Sunday after 19 hours of laboring at home, I was admitted to labor and delivery. When we arrived, we were greeted by attentive staff and Sharon, who was due to get off shift in a little less than an hour, at 8:00 PM. As the staff worked to admit me and monitor our little boy, Sharon sat at my bedside checking on my physical and emotional status. She took time to let me verbalize how I was feeling and discuss what the next steps of Labor and delivery would look like. During the admission process, my bedside nurse had several questions regarding my birth plan. As I sat, breathing through my contractions, I heard Sharon sharing clarifications and telling my bedside nurses specifics about my plan and thinking behind it. It brought a whole new level of peace to my mind hearing her recall conversations we had had months and months prior. She had made a purposeful effort to get to know me, my family, my medical history, and details of my pregnancy and that was truly reassuring. Around 8:00 PM she told me she had to slip out and give report to the oncoming midwife. She returned shortly with the night shift midwife. At that point, she said to me “I may just have to stay to see your baby be born!” I was not only encouraged at her assessment of my labor progress but shocked that she would be willing to entertain staying after her 12-hour shift to see me through the hardest hours of labor and my delivery period.

Over the next hours, Sharon didn't leave my room. She monitored my baby as I'm moved about. She skillfully saw subtle clinical changes in my status and assured me the birth pool was ready for me to get into for my last part of labor. She remained close by and coached me on breathing techniques when I was in the midst of intense pain in labor. I remember beginning to feel anxious as my contractions became very intense. With eyes tight shut and forced words I managed, “is Sharon still here?” And of course, she was standing by, ready.

It’s hard to even put into words how that reassurance of her familiar presence helped settle me and my anxiety. It helped me relax and continue to labor. As my baby’s arrival approached, Sharon encouraged me over and over when I felt I was too exhausted to push. And in the wee hours of the morning, hours after her shift had ended, Sharon delivered my little boy. I still cannot believe she cared enough to stay late and deliver my son. But her excellence in care did not end there.

After delivery, I hemorrhaged. Although I remember little of it my husband said that Sharon was quick, direct, and efficient in her care for me. She and the nursing team treated the hemorrhage with skill and expertise and stopped the bleeding. Even though it was a scary situation my husband told me he was very confident in the care Sharon and the team was providing that he knew all was going to be ok.

My experience of labor and delivery could not have been any better and so much of that is because of Sharon’s care for me. I’m so grateful for her attentive, excellent care not only during my labor and delivery. She went above and beyond what was her job description and truly made a lasting impact on our family. And it is for all of these reasons that she is a true DAISY Nurse.