Supportive Staff Offers Relief During Labor & Delivery [Chelsey Engstrom]

I'm Chelsey Engstrom and I am originally from Minnesota, but I've lived here in Brookings the last four or five years with my husband.

Tell us about your new baby.

My husband and I welcomed our first child on December 3rd of 2024 and his name is Jellmer Jack Engstrom, which is kind of a family name, although we didn't really know an actual Jellmer. We just knew it was on both sides of our family and it sounded like a really cool name. And he's about a month old already and it just is the best thing in the world to be a mom. And my first goal in life was be a teacher and we did that, and then the second one was be a mom, and here we are and it's just living the dream.

How did the staff support you during labor and delivery?

We thought of the staff here up on the OB floor as almost like a family, a second family as we were here for four nights and five days and they were very supportive. Nobody ever rubbed us the wrong way and any question that we had wasn't considered uncalled for. They were really supportive, really patient and just able to spend either five minutes on a question or an hour in the room talking everything over, so just very supportive and kind individuals here.

Why were you induced?

Sure. So I was induced because of the preeclampsia. Dr. Abele said normally 37 weeks is your maximum that you can deliver. Luckily then, I didn't have any other symptoms up to week 37, so I got to go to week 39. I'm assuming it's just safer to do things that way instead of go up to the actual 40 weeks.

How was your labor and delivery?

So going into it, I didn't really have a birth plan. I was just really open to everything. And we knew that we had to go in at 7 p.m. on a Sunday to be induced, so we did that and then it took, like, a day and a half or so to be able to start the labor and pushing. So we did that with the whole epidural and contractions and medicine to get the contractions going. And then from there, bright and early, Dr. Abele came in at 3 a.m. and I pushed for five or six hours. And then, she said that the progress was slowing, so then from there she counseled us on some different methods of everything. And then actually before that, the staff was really supportive in being able to say, "Let's try this position," "Would you like to do this," "Are you not comfortable with that?" But anyway, after the pushing wasn't working so well for the last hour and progress slowed, then we were counseled on, like, the vacuum method I believe it was called and a C-section and eventually had to do the whole shebang and did all of them and then our boy was born. But yes, that's how that went.

How did the staff support you during the C-section?

So after the C-section, I felt relieved that this whole day and a half of laboring was over and our boy was healthy and happy. And it just kind of brings tears to my eyes now because everything, it was just good in the end. But we welcomed our little boy and I felt relief. I felt a little bit of pain because I think everyone's pain tolerance is different, whether you have medicine or not. And the team kept us super-duper comfortable and they explained everything along the way. And they were always by my husband and my side, so very supportive and really informative in the OR room.

How did the staff support and include your husband?

Dustin is his name. He's always been by my side the whole time as he wanted to be and I wanted him to be there. And I feel like he was in this birth just as much as I was because he was always there, whether it was the hand-holding or encouraging or counting while pushing or in the C-section, watching that, or when it came to breastfeeding and feeding from bottles, he was just always there. And I think that they treated him with the same amount of respect as they did for me, so very nice, very well.

How was you caesarean postpartum recovery?

Postpartum recovery has went very well. With the C-section, I was expecting it to be a long road ahead because they say, "Oh, it probably takes six weeks or so." But honestly, I was up the next day walking around. Each day got easier. I was doing Walmart trips and coffee runs maybe, like, three to five days from there and then fully feeling like myself again after two weeks. And with a regular surgery, people are kind of laid up in bed a long time with a newborn and having a C-section you don't really have that choice, so I just felt really blessed that I was able to get right back in it and and do life again.

How did the staff support your decision to breastfeed?

So everyone always says breastfeeding is hard and you're going to give up and you can't do it but that's not really the case. It's different for everyone. We tried that for a while and went home doing that and then eventually, just because of how things will happen in our future, in three months our baby's going to daycare. So we thought, "Well, he needs to learn to take a bottle anyway. "So then we went the pumping and bottling route, which we're doing now, and whether we wanted to do that or formula or exclusive breastfeeding, the staff was really supportive of everything.

What did you appreciate most about your care?

I appreciated the kindness of the entire staff, whether it was our main doctor, Dr. Abele, or the 20 different OB nurses that we worked with or even the director up here. Everything just was great and everyone was supportive, patient and like I said earlier, there was no question that was uncalled for or anything and just felt that we were treated with a lot of respect and everything was answered very professionally, and we were counseled really nicely on everything that we needed to know.

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

If you're local in Brookings, it's a no-brainer. Just just come here. Everything you need is here. And if you are a working mom or dad or have a working partner or you, yourself, are, it makes it really convenient to take an hour or two of work off, come to your appointment, go right back to your life. So if you live here in Brookings, you go here and that's the end of the story.

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