15 labor and delivery, NICU nurses pregnant at Long Island hospital
MINEOLA, Long Island (WABC) -- There's baby fever at NYU Winthrop Hospital in Mineola, as 15 nurses in the Labor and Delivery and NICU units are pregnant.
"You couldn't ask for a better unit and a better group of people to be pregnant with," Labor and Delivery nurse Katie Kent said.
Heather Beebe is due the soonest, on April 17. She's planning to give birth on the same floor where she works with her co-workers assisting.
"I know that my baby is going to be in great hands," she said.
All of the nurses said they're planning to work up until their due dates.
"What better place to go into labor than work?" Ashley Leighton said.
Labor and Delivery nurse manager CJ Catalano said staffing will not be an issue when the nurses are out on maternity leave.
"We have a Iot of staff, and we support each other and cover each other," Catalano said.
Catalano said since October, seven other nurses have been out on maternity leave and are just beginning to return to work -- just in time to replace the nurses who will be going out
NICU nurse manager LaShon Pitter said she saw this coming.
"A couple of my girls had just gotten married in the last year-and-a-half, so I was like, the baby train is coming," she said.
Pitter said staffing will also not be an issue in the NICU due to a large existing staff pool.
All but six of the nurses are first-time moms.
"It's definitely nice as a first-time mom to be going through this with all my co-workers," said Katelyn, O'Connor, 31, of Stamford. "I mean, I know we're in the business, but we still have a lot of questions just like everyone else has questions, so it's definitely nice to be able to bounce things off of each other that way."
The nurses said they're already starting to talk about play dates and sharing baby pictures.
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