St. Mary's nurses bask in baby boom
One-fourth of the nurses in St. Mary's coronary intensive care unit are pregnant, prompting speculation and humor. Left to right: Michelle Eikam, April Archibald, Jeri Sylvester, Laura Simonson, Tami Kocon, Cassie Morsette. (Bob King / rking@duluthnews.com)By: Candace Renalls, Duluth News Tribune
- Babies' heartbeats
- Pregnant nurses
There are plenty of double takes and jokes these days in the coronary intensive care unit at St. Mary’s Medical Center.
People are wondering: Is there something in the water?
That’s because one-fourth of the unit’s registered nursing staff are obviously pregnant.
Not only that — five of the six nurses who are pregnant are due in November and December, within six weeks of each other.
“It’s kind of a fun story at work,” said April Archibald, 33, a nurse due Nov. 15. “It’s fun to see the patients and other staff realize we’re all pregnant.”
When patients ask for their nurse, the response typically is, “Which one?”
Now, when they say “the pregnant one,” the response again is, “Which one?”
“Often two or three are on at the same time,” said Mary Jo Slowinski, the unit’s nurse manager.
The nurses are still on the job, though the first due, Michelle Eikam, has cut back her hours.
Some of the nurses had been trying to get pregnant for a couple of years, Archibald said, while others had been trying for a month.
“All of a sudden, all of us were pregnant,” she said
“It was kind of bizarre how it happened at the same time,” said Laura Simonson, 28, who is due Dec. 15. “We were shocked and excited. We thought it would happen a lot more spread out.”
Tami Kocon, 32, who is due Dec. 25 with twins, said the fact that they’re all friends has made being pregnant more rewarding.
“It’s nice to be able to run things past each other and talk about what each of us is going through,” she said. The other pregnant nurses are Jeri Sylvester and Cassie Morsette.
As Slowinski learned much of her staff were pregnant, she was surprised, but happy for them. With five on maternity leave at the same time, however, covering their shifts will be a challenge. But their fellow nurses will fill in, and others have volunteered.
Some have offered theories for the bonanza of pregnancies, including the long winter and the economic recession, which caused people to stay home more.
But there just may be something in that water theory.
A therapist from another unit who wanted to get pregnant started coming to the Coronary ICU each day to drink the water.
Though it was all in fun, she’s now pregnant.
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