For a pediatric doctor, having to deliver bad news to parents is tough.
Having to receive bad news can be tougher.
That’s exactly what happened to Dr. Rachel Nebelsick, a pediatric medical resident at Akron Children’s Hospital, in August.
Nebelsick, a transplant from South Dakota, was 23 weeks pregnant with her first child, Westin, when she received shocking news.
“I was (10 centimeters) dilated,” Nebelsick says.
Up to that point, Nebelsick – fit, young, generally healthy, a half-marathon runner – had the perfect pregnancy, she says. In the back of her mind, though, she had her fears.
“Being in pediatrics, I know all the things that can go wrong,” she said. “I was, of course, nervous from the get-go because we see the worst of the worst, and I work in the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit).”
Nebelsick, who is now in her third year of residency at Akron Children’s, was taking a three-hour test one day when she says, she felt something was “off” with her pregnancy. She called her doctor, went into the office and found out she was dilating.
“It was terrifying. It was like a bad dream.” - Dr. Rachel Nebelsick
“I just assumed I was overreacting because I do that,” she says.
After her exam, Nebelsick was immediately admitted. Doctors performed a procedure to stop the dilation and keep Westin “in as long as possible.”
“I sat on my bed … for two weeks,” Nebelsick says. “Despite all of that, Westin was born on
Aug. 3.”
Doctors induced labor after seeing Nebelsick’s white blood cell count dropping.
Born at just 1 lb., 13 oz., and at 25 weeks, Westin spent 121 days in the NICU. He was classified as a micro-preemie: a baby weighing less than 1 lb., 12 oz. at birth, or born before 26 weeks gestation.
“When he was born, he had a breathing tube, he was intubated, he had a feeding tube, he couldn’t do anything,” Nebelsick says.
After six weeks off work, Nebelsick returned to Akron Children’s, but she was never far from Westin.
“I went back to work for eight weeks while he was still there,” she says. “They gave me nine more weeks when he went home to have true bonding time at home and have us all adjust to home life.”
Nebelsick returned to Akron Children’s on Feb. 6.
“We hired a nanny so he wouldn’t get sick during cold and flu season,” she says. “Since he’s so high-risk, we wanted to keep him healthy.”
Even though Westin is high-risk for colds and the flu, he’s growing into a normal, healthy baby boy, Nebelsick says.
“For a 4-month-old, he’s doing absolutely everything he’s supposed to do,” she says. “We met
with the developmental doctors … and he’s right on track with where he’s supposed to be.”
As of March, Westin was 13 lbs. and doing well, Nebelsick says. He no longer had a feeding tube, though feeding was still a battle.
“He just doesn’t really care if he eats,” she says. “He would literally rather play with me than take his bottle.”
Nebelsick doesn’t mind the challenge, she says.
“It’s frustrating, but if, at the end of the day, that’s our biggest battle for being born at 25 weeks and everything we’ve been through, then I feel like we’ll be OK,” she says.
Giving birth to a preemie was rough going, Nebelsick says, but it’s definitely shaped her into a better person, and doctor, because of it.
“I think that going through everything that we’ve been through, I can sympathize with parents in ways that only people have been in their shoes can.” - Dr. Rachel Nebelsick
A lot of parents fear leaving a newborn child in the NICU with doctors they barely know, and Nebelsick says she would have felt the same way had she not been working with Akron Children’s. In the future, she is going to use that fear to her advantage.
Nebelsick plans to stay one more year and continue to work at Akron Children’s as a chief resident, overseeing everyone in the residency program. After that, she plans to become a hospitalist, working at inpatient units.
“It’s going to be wherever I get that job that I love, whether that’s at Akron Children’s or if I need to go elsewhere,” she says. “We’re not in a huge hurry to leave.”
Dylanne Petros is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
