Bailey Malecha

After all, the birth of her first child, Summer, was “smooth and quick” with less than 7 hours of labor. And Bailey is an experienced labor & delivery nurse.

But every pregnancy is different. At first, Bailey wasn’t sure if labor had started. It seemed like her water broke, but she wasn’t feeling contractions. Bailey called the Birth Center; charge nurse Frankie Stocker, RN suggested moving around to see if contractions picked up. “We decided to go in and if we got sent home, that would be that and we’d be good with it,” Bailey says.

When they arrived, contractions were 10 minutes apart. Bailey labored in the Water Birth tub; progress was slow, and her back hurt. “We wondered if the baby was positioned wonky,” Bailey recalls. Certified nurse midwife Brittany Cordes, CNM discovered the baby was positioned face up, with his head pressing against Bailey’s spine instead of her cervix, causing back pain and stalling dilation – a double whammy.

After 10 hours of back labor, Bailey decided to get an epidural. “I was suffering, and I didn’t want that to be my birth experience, looking back on it later,” she says.

Four hours later, Beckham was born. But he wasn’t breathing.

Pediatrician Amy Kraushaar, DO and the care team used positive pressure ventilation to help Beckham breathe before he took his first breath on his own. Then Bailey held him close, skin-to-skin. Beckham went home the next day.

But he struggled with breathing, and eating. Beckham needed intensive care. At Fairview Ridges’ NICU, Beckham was diagnosed with pneumonia and laryngealmalacia, with weak muscles around larynx that cause noisy breathing and also affect swallowing. It’s a common condition that babies usually outgrow by 12-18 months. Within weeks, Beckham has already “gotten much better,” Bailey says.

Beckham is thriving now, and big sister Summer “wants to hold and kiss him all the time,” Bailey smiles.

As a labor & delivery nurse herself, “it’s fantastic to understand what’s going on when things are going great,” Bailey says. “But in scary situations like Beckham not breathing, it’s even scarier because you know what could go wrong.” Her husband Conner doesn’t work in healthcare, so Bailey asked the Birth Center team “to treat us like regular patients so Conner felt confident and comfortable with the decisions we were making too. Everyone was super accommodating, comforting and calming.”

Bailey’s advice if you’re not sure whether you’re in labor: “Trust your gut. If you go in and end up being sent home because you’re not in labor, there’s nothing wrong with that. And trust the care team. The Birth Center providers and staff know what they’re doing; you and your baby are their priority, and they want to give you all the information you need to make decisions for yourself and your baby.”

Whatever happens.