Accessibility Offers Comfort During Pregnancy Experience [Taylor Hanson]

Hi. My name is Taylor Hanson. I originally am from Breckenridge, Minnesota, and I lived in Aberdeen for probably about the last 11 years prior to moving to Brookings in December of '24. And I currently work at the South Dakota Enterprise Institute. Ada is our daughter. She was born in March, and she is now four months old.

Why did you choose Brookings Health System for OB care?

So we moved here when I was in my third trimester. And one thing that was important is, having a baby in March, you never know what the weather is going to be like, and so it was important for us to find quality care that was going to be close to home and something that was going to be easy for us to access no matter the weather and be nearby. And we were excited that we lived fairly close to the hospital, and that was going to work out really well for us.

How was the Understanding Birth & Baby e-class and recap?

That was a really good experience to kind of learn a little bit more about what the process would look like, kind of the values of Brookings Health, playing into birth plans to kind of make moms and dads and parents comfortable with the whole experience. We also got to tour the facility, and so we got to tour the unit, meet a couple of the staff that were working at the time, and become a little bit more comfortable with the rooms that we'd be delivering in and some of the resources that would be available to us here at the Brookings Health System Hospital.

What was the advantage of online classes?

One thing that was really helpful was that the online learning was accessible at any time. So, with moving and all of those things, an in-person class would have maybe been a little bit more challenging to go to for the entirety of that birth education. But to have it accessible online was helpful, and I thought that it was clear and concise, and I thought that the videos were all very helpful and useful information.

Why was it important to get information from credible medical sources?

As a first-time mom, I think that we can all get down the Google search trap, and I think one of the things that was really helpful through the birth education, as well as the postpartum care, is that there are professionals that are available to help you work through certain situations, understanding how to care for a newborn, care for yourself postpartum, and having that come from credible sources such as lactation consultant nurses or doctors that are really great at their jobs I think helps that whole experience be a lot more manageable.

How was your prenatal care transition?

When we were planning to move, of course, one of the most important things that I had in mind was trying to find an OB doctor here in Brookings. And so I called the office here and then got matched with Dr. Abele. And so we had already gone to those almost-every-week appointments or those every-two-week appointments when we first met her. And so we had kind of a seamless transition from working with our OB doctor in Aberdeen and then meeting with Dr. Abele. And she was very understanding, very communicative, very open-minded and left questions open-ended. She never had any judgment or we felt like we were being rushed in our prenatal care. My husband and I, we like to ask a lot of questions when we felt that she was very open to all the questions that we had and was never rushing us out the door, which, I think, in some cases and some communities, especially larger communities, people feel like they're kind of being rushed through. And especially when you're experiencing being pregnant for the first time or having a child for the first time, I think that there's many things that pop up in your mind that it's just nice to ask those questions at those appointments and feel like you're really being heard.

How was your labor and delivery?

Real crazy, real fast, and it was a fun experience, honestly. A little intimidating. I ended up having quite a bit of back labor, and so I stood for the majority of my labor. And then after my water broke, things picked up considerably. Probably in that transition stage, I ended up kind of losing control of my breath, which was the point where I wanted to get some pain mitigation. And so I ended up getting an epidural kind of at that time. And once the epidural kind of started working, that's when we got checked again, and it was already time to push. And it ended up going really well. I think, entirely, we were in the hospital from 3:00, 4:00, and I delivered at 9:00.

How did the OB team communicate with you?

One thing that was really nice throughout the whole time is there was a staff transition during the middle of our labor or my labor, and we felt like it was really seamless, that the communication between staff was going really well. It's a very calm environment. I wasn't being led one way or the other. Whenever there was kind of a time where I had to make maybe a decision or wanted some extra care, those kinds of things, the options were laid out to me very well. And we felt like we had full ability to make a decision in the moment and that we weren't being led one way or the other, just given facts, and then going from there.

What was your pain management plan?

It was kind of a whatever happens mindset for me because, of course, not experiencing labor for the first time, and one of my things was, depending on how long that process was going to be, especially with having that back labor and things like that, I wanted to save some of my energy for pushing. And so I didn't have a plan to get an epidural at a specific time. I said I will probably lean that way, but I wanted to make sure it was at a point where I'm comfortable getting that, that things were at least far enough in the process that I didn't think that my labor was going to slow down. And I actually think that the epidural helped me relax enough to actually fully allow me to get to the point to pushing, too.

What would you tell others considering delivery at Brookings Health System?

I think, moving to Brookings, it can be intimidating to switch health care providers, as well as envision yourself delivering at a different hospital than you initially were thinking because of moving. And when we moved here and had our tour here, I was very impressed with the facility itself, as well as the staff that we met along the way, and as well as building that relationship with Dr. Abele. I was very comfortable going into that labor and delivery. And so even though we didn't have Dr. Abele, we had Dr. Bennis, I just felt really comfortable in the facility.

What did you appreciate most?

I am a big fan of having, like, a calm environment, as well as a kind of smaller and more intimate setting. I liked the kind of smaller atmosphere that I didn't feel like I was 1 of 12 women maybe in labor at the time. It was just very calm, very intimate environment. I am also a big fan of smaller health systems because you can kind of tailor things a little bit more to your needs, and I think sometimes your staff isn't maybe stretched as possibly thin. And so we felt like our needs were met very well, and the staff was very attentive to us, and it was in a kind of small intimate setting.

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