5 /5 Matthew Schwarmann: This review is for the Labor & Delivery section of the hospital. If you just want the quick summary it’s 100% Have your baby here, the staff was beyond incredible!
1. Aletha our night nurse might be the most incredible human being on the planet. We had a really long delivery; 39 hour induction including over 25 hours of active labor. As you can imagine my poor wife was exhausted. I know Aletha had to have other patients as well, but somehow it always felt like she was there every single second we needed anything. Even more amazing on the 2nd night Aletha’s 12 hour shift was supposed to end at 7 am while we were about 36 hours in. I’m still not sure exactly how Aletha knew but she just seemed to know my wife and I were hoping she would be able to stay, and sure enough Aletha worked 15 hours straight to stay with us through the birth of our son. That extra 3 hours meant my wife got to be that much more comfortable having this amazing person helping to deliver our son, and we will be forever grateful we had this phenomenal nurse to help us through.
2. Sarah (our day nurse)- Have you ever met someone where it’s simply impossible to talk to them without smiling and feeling happy? Sarah is this exact person. Picture just a ball of good energy. Whether it was a joke, a story, a smile or just anything to make my wife feel better Sarah was perfect for it. All while handling all her patients and duties. Exactly what you need when going through labor. People like here are one more reason to choose Halifax.
3. Kaylee- Another day nurse we had the pleasure of having. Kaylee managed to combine a no nonsense attitude get the job done while making it clear she genuinely cared about us. Her leadership was very calming and you just knew instantly you are in good hands when she’s around. She answered so many questions from us and again made us feel comfortable in a stressful time.
4. Kendal- Kendal was a nurse from another department moving over to labor and delivery. She has 3 kids of her own and multiple times she was able to give advice, answer a question, reassure us about difficulties etc etc. She was kind and friendly and someday there will be another new mom who gets reassured by Nurse Kendal
Moving to our general experience. Right of the bat Halifax is the only Level 3 NICU in the area. They also offer tours on Tuesday afternoons before you deliver just so you can see everywhere you will be going, fill out paperwork ahead of time and just be a little more comfortable. Another thing we appreciated after we got admitted they let us know they had training nurses (as all hospitals do) who may want to watch the delivery but that our comfort was paramount and if we didn’t want any extra people in the room none of them had to come. We wanted to at least try and help a little and agreed to having one training nurse observe who wound up being a lovely girl named Trinity. She was really sweet, eager to learn and be helpful. I imagine training under these amazing Halifax nurses Trinity will someday make another set of parents have a great delivery experience. One more just perfect example of how much these Halifax nurses care. As mentioned our labor was quite extended and my wife had been stuck at 4cm for hours. Every other person who had come in around the same time as us had already had their babies. Aletha came in to give my wife another check and when she came up smiling we knew we had finally progressed. Aletha entered in we were 9cm (baby almost ready to come) in the computer and about 5 seconds later we heard the entire floor of nurses cheer. Turns out they had all been checking on us on their external monitors for hours rooting for us. It felt fantastic to literally be able to hear people caring that much.
In summary I understand there might be a newer or prettier hospital somewhere, but I am beyond certain you will not find a safer, more comforting experience for delivery with people who genuinely care about you than Halifax Health Labor Delivery.
