Former SVH nurses help deliver their grandchild on New Year’s Eve

For Paul Crowe and Jenna Barkley, giving birth to baby Jackson, on New Year’s Eve at Sonoma Valley Hospital, was like having him born at home. Both Jenna and Paul’s mothers, Debbie Cohen (left) and Vicki Crowe (right), had worked here, at different times, as labor and delivery nurses, and Paul, himself was born here. For the family, the birth was not just a personal example of the outstanding care patients receive at Sonoma Valley Hospital, but a miracle.

As Vicki tells the story, Paul, when he was in his early teens, had been diagnosed at the hospital with osteo-sarcoma. His doctors at SVH referred him to another facility for his treatment and eventual cure, but they counseled him that, given the drastic effects of chemotherapy on the body, even though he was far from the age when he’d be thinking about such things, he consider securing his long-term fatherhood potential and bank some sperm. The teenager did so. Years later, as a new couple, he and Jenna hadn’t given much thought to the sperm bank, so when Jenna found herself pregnant, the family considered it a miracle. On New Year’s Eve of 2009, they were sure of it.

It hadn’t been an easy labor, Jenna remembers, but thanks to good pre-natal care, she was calm. “Dr. Amara is so wonderful and so careful and he took such good care of me all during the pregnancy,” said Jenna, “that by the fourth day of labor, when he said, ‘It’s time for a C section,’ I had no worries at all. I totally trusted him.”

Her mother, Debbie, the former SVH labor and delivery nurse, was allowed in the Operating Room while Dr. Amara performed the C Section. “It was like old times,” Debbie said. “When they handed me the baby to wash him, it felt just so natural, like I’d done this thousands of times, in this very room – but this was my own grandson!” She laughed with amazement. “And over there, just having had a C section, was my Jenna!”

The story took another twist when Dr. Amara discovered, in the course of his routine testing, that both Jenna and Paul carry the gene for cystic fibrosis, a very, very rare occurrence. They now know that baby Jackson carries the gene as well, but, like Jenna and Paul, will not have the disease.

The family all praise the care, the professionalism and the kindness of Sonoma Valley Hospital’s staff. “It was New Years Eve,” said Jenna, “and I knew they were really busy, but they kept coming in and checking and were always completely calm and quiet and reassuring.”

She said the whole thing felt like a family affair. “They took such good care of me all throughout my pregnancy, that when it came time to deliver, I felt I knew everybody, and it was like having my baby at home.” Both Vicki and Debbie praised the way SVH welcomed the whole family, letting them stay, giving them privacy and sending up meals. “We were completely at home,” said Vicki Crowe. “And the food was great!”

January 17, 2010