Seven babies. Five months. One unit at OSF Saint Anthony Medical Center in Rockford

By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
Get our newsletter

ROCKFORD — The doctor was eight months pregnant when she delivered her nurse’s baby.

Her own baby came less than a month later.

The arrival of that baby boy ended a streak of seven births within about five months from one small unit of OSF HealthCare Saint Anthony Medical Center’s Family Birthing Center.

“It was literally like a line, like ‘oh I’m pregnant’ and then two weeks later ‘oh I’m pregnant,'” said Angela Sinople, an obstetrics technician who gave birth to Isabella Mazzuea on Valentine’s Day 2020. “Then another one. By the time of the fourth one you’re like, OK, what is happening?”

What happened is nearly a quarter of the unit’s staff of 30 welcomed new babies within 164 days. Five girls and two boys were born to four registered nurses, two technicians and one OB-GYN doctor between February and July in 2020.

(story continues below photo)

At a time when visitors were restricted from the hospital because of the coronavirus pandemic, the coworkers all felt like they had someone to lean on as they went through their pregnancies.

“I felt like I had my family with me,” said Alex Hamm, a registered nurse who gave birth to Brielle in June 2020.

Genevieve Stoner, the unit’s nurse manager, said she’s worked in the OB-GYN unit for 25 years and never seen anything like this. But she was most impressed with the bond the coworkers built.

“They’ve shared clothes, they’ve shared breast pumps, they’ve shared everything,” Stoner said. “During COVID they couldn’t have family over, they couldn’t have family during their delivery. So our work family was more important than ever.”

A scary pregnancy

Hamm panicked when she heard a frightening term uttered in the delivery room during her labor.

The word is shoulder dystocia — an anxiety-provoking emergency that often happens without warning when one of the baby’s shoulders is trapped beneath her mother’s pelvic bone.

“I freaked out and I stopped actively pushing her out,” Hamm said. “So (Dr. Teona Cozianu-Cotan), 37 weeks pregnant herself, had to pull my daughter out because she was stuck by the shoulders.”

Hamm’s baby girl wasn’t breathing, and she watched as her coworkers saved her baby’s life.

“I was scared because my daughter wasn’t breathing, but I was comforted because I knew the skill level that they all had, and I knew she was in the best hands she could possibly be,” Hamm said. “Getting to see them every day afterwards when I came back to work — I’m just so grateful for all of them.”

Dr. Cozianu-Cotan gave birth 25 days later.

“I feel so blessed that she let me deliver her baby. That means that she has a lot of trust in me,” Cozianu-Cotan said of Hamm. “There’s a connection that probably only the two of us have and will have for the rest of our lives.”

On Monday, the doctor is scheduled to deliver a baby for Hamm’s sister.

Other coworkers were present for each other, too. Registered nurse Maggie Humphry helped deliver Sinople’s baby girl about five months before giving birth to her daughter, Adelyn.

Seven babies, five months

Registered nurse Lesly Lettieri was the first of the bunch to give birth in February 2020, when she welcomed Valerie. Sinople was next. Then, registered nurse Oliver Hammonds’ wife, Kim, gave birth to their baby boy Cole in March, followed by technician Dakota Sandall, who gave birth to Raelynn Dodge two days later.

Hamm gave birth to Brielle in late June, followed by Humphry six days later. Cozianu-Cotan was last in late July.

“Six of the seven of us had someone else of us due within a few days,” Hamm said. “Maggie and I were due a day apart. Going through the pandemic and pregnancy with her was amazing. We would text each other all the time.

“Having the support of our coworkers, who obviously know what they’re doing in the OB world, but having the support of them as friends as well at work … was amazing.”

[wpbg-gallery id=174525 title=”yes” description=”no” view=”slider”]

This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.