spreading the word

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nnie Larson’s job is helping mothers deliver healthy babies. This year, the labor and delivery nurse at Essentia Health-Fargo has taken on a new role as an ambassador for the March of Dimes.

Larson’s own experience with the premature birth of twins led her and her husband, Brett, to volunteer as North Dakota’s Ambassador Family. The Fargo couple is helping spread the word about how the March of Dimes improves the health of babies and supports families whose babies are born premature. They share their family’s story with groups and at events, including the upcoming Black Bib Affair slated for Sept. 26 in Fargo.

Born on July 5, 2011, the twin girls arrived 14 weeks early. Aubrey weighed only 2 pounds, 1 ounce and measured 13 ¾ inches long. Madison weighed 2 pounds, 2.7 ounces and was 14 inches long.

Complications during the birth resulted in an emergency Caesarean section. Larson ended up in the intensive care unit and the babies in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Essentia Health-Fargo.

“We were told our babies were very sick but they were fighting hard – it was a minute by minute fight for both of them,” Larson recalls.

As a labor and delivery nurse, Larson was familiar with the sights and sounds of the NICU but she admits it was a very different experience as a mother. “A NICU journey is so emotional and overwhelming,” she says. “Nobody is ever really prepared. I know we sure weren’t.”

No one is prepared for what the Larsons faced next. Aubrey, their firstborn, was dying on the day she was born. “They did everything they possibly could but her little body just couldn’t take it,” Larson explains.

While the couple was surrounded by their families, they also turned to Collette Christoffers, who was working as the NICU family support specialist. The position, the only one in the state, is a joint effort by Essentia Health and the March of Dimes’ North Dakota Chapter.

“As we said good-bye to Aubrey, so many emotions came over us,” Larson shares. “We were sad, angry, scared and confused. I’m not sure how we could have coped with the loss of Aubrey as well as dealing with a very sick Madison had we not experienced the March of Dimes’ NICU support program and Collette. She stood by our side from the moment that we found out that Aubrey wasn’t going to make it and through Madison’s one-stepforward, two-steps-back journey in the NICU.”

During Madison’s 101-day stay, Christoffers’ support included providing a simple but encouraging calendar that marked the newborn’s milestones – many of which are unique to NICU babies -- such as the first time her parents got to hold her and when her ventilator was removed. Madison went home on Oct. 14, 2011, eight days after her original due date.

Volunteering for the March of Dimes has made Larson a strong advocate for the 1 in 8 babies who are born premature.

“I want people to know that every pregnancy is not perfect and what prematurity means – how there are constantly milestones that you have to achieve,” she says. “And I want moms to be proud to carry their babies to term. Forty weeks is a reward.”

While Larson has always felt called to be a labor and delivery nurse, her belief has only grown stronger. “This is where I am supposed to be,” she says. “God is telling me this is who you are.”

Larson says her Birthplace coworkers know they can call her if another family finds themselves heading to the NICU or facing the loss of a baby. “I can sit on the bed, cry with them and say ‘I know what you’re feeling,’” she says. [AWM]

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by beth Diane braDLey

Stacy Heidenreich and Delene Gunderson are coworkers at Gate City Bank, but that’s not all they have in common. Both women have lost their mothers to Alzheimer’s disease and continue to support the cause.

Heidenreich’s mother developed symptoms at only 58 years old, before her first grandchild was even born. “As her dementia started to progress, she became less and less articulate. When I showed her an ultrasound picture of her grandbaby, she simply repeated ‘Thank you’ over and over again,” Heidenreich said.

“Mom was originally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, but was later reassessed as having Pick’s disease, another type of dementia. Pick’s disease, over time, robbed my mom of her ability to remember her family, to read, to participate in conversations or remember the plot of a movie she was watching,” Heidenreich said. “During the last years of the disease, she lost her ability to speak, walk -- and ultimately -- to swallow, which then caused her to lose her battle against dementia.”