A Trip No Parent Should Have to Make

As a patient with Memorial Health System’s Department of OBGYN, Maddy Carpenter was ready to tackle any obstacle that pregnancy threw her way. Preparing herself to be a first-time mom, she anticipated the typical struggles of the newborn stage—late-night feedings, sleepless nights, and plenty of diaper changes. However, it wasn’t until her 35th week of pregnancy that Maddy and her husband, Jakob, faced a challenge that they hadn’t anticipated: an early delivery filled with unexpected complications.

From the moment Maddy arrived at the emergency department with suspected false labor pains, things moved quickly for her and her family as she was already six centimeters dilated. Knowing that the baby would be weeks earlier than expected, her care team jumped into action to prepare both mother and baby to the best of their abilities by providing steroid shots to assist with the baby’s lung development and gathering different team members to be on hand, ready to assist with any complications that may arise during early delivery.

Within six hours of arriving at the emergency department, Maddy’s son, Barhett, made his entrance into the world. However, soon after his delivery, it became apparent to providers that little Barhett was struggling. “He was having labored breathing,” Maddy recalls fearfully. “He was having a hard time keeping up with his breathing, so his providers immediately put him on oxygen and began watching him really closely.” When it became apparent that Barhett’s breathing was not going to adjust on its own, it was decided that he needed to be transferred to Akron Children’s in Akron, Ohio for specialized NICU care.

So, within 10 hours of arriving at the emergency department, Maddy was separated from her newborn son as he was sent over two hours away from home for further care.

Not long after Barhett’s departure, Maddy was able to secure her own discharge from the hospital and began the two-hour journey to Akron to be with her son.

“Once we got to Akron and were updated on Barhett’s condition, we quickly started trying to figure out where we needed to go from there,” Maddy says. From discussing family visits and sleeping arrangements to budgeting food and other expenses, Maddy and Jakob had to juggle a lot while dealing with the reality of having a newborn in the NICU. “There was a lot of stress,” Maddy recalls when discussing those early days trying to adjust to life in Akron. “My husband had to go back to work part-time about a week into our NICU stay, and then at two weeks had to go back full time—that was extremely stressful for both of us.”

 Struggling with the separation of her family and the financial strain of staying in a more expensive city hours away from support, Maddy ultimately made the difficult decision to return home to prepare for Barhett’s arrival. “It was probably the worst and best decision for our family,” she reflects, “but we had nothing ready with Barhett being so early.” Though it was a hard decision to make, being at home allowed Maddy and Jakob time to regroup, rest, and decide how they would adjust to their new situation. With Akron Children’s being a two-hour drive each way, they were grateful for the support from family members who helped them with essentials like gas and food, ultimately allowing them to visit Barhett during his almost four-week stay in the NICU. However, it was still a challenging time for the new family of three.

Today, Barhett is a healthy, happy, and incredibly rambunctious toddler. Yet, Maddy cannot help but reflect on how different things would have been for her family if specialized care had been available in their region.

 “A lot of our support system was trying to figure out how they could help us from home,” she says. “A women and children’s hospital around here would have really helped with that family-support aspect—taking care of our house and helping us get ready for a new baby that we were not expecting so soon.”

In addition to providing further family support and relieving financial strain, Maddy also shares that another major difference in her experience would have involved better care for her own physical health in the wake of Barhett’s birth.

 “When I left the hospital,” Maddy recalls, “they gave me instructions for my recovery, but I was more focused on my son’s health than my own. Postpartum was a very different experience for me, and I probably neglected my own health a little during that time.” According to Maddy, she wouldn’t have denied herself the postpartum care she needed if she could have stayed in the same facility as Barhett, something that would have been possible with access to a women and children’s hospital.

As she plans on further expanding her family, the announcement of Memorial Health System’s Women and Children’s Hospital has Maddy hopeful for a future where she will be able to stay close to her support system, and not have to choose between her own health and staying with her child.

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