Crystal Olson

was born at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Cherishing the “Golden Hour” After Son's Birth

by Connie Wirta

Moments after his birth, Crystal Olson looked into her son’s eyes and told him she loved him. Her husband, Nick, told him his name was Jet.

“We started talking to him and he stopped crying,” Crystal recalls. “He was listening and looking at us so intently.”

“I prayed a blessing over him,” Nick remembers.

Although Jet is their fourth son, it’s the first time the Duluth couple has experienced the “golden hour” of bonding after birth because all their boys were delivered by cesarean section. In the past, mothers went to a recovery room after the surgery at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s Medical Center and babies were taken to the nursery. Now, mothers and babies remain together in the hospital’s Birthplace.

Dr. Anne Rogotzke, an Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic obstetrician and gynecologist, delivered Jet. A nurse quickly cleaned him up and handed him to Nick, who laid him on Crystal’s chest. While Dr. Rogotzke completed the surgery, the parents welcomed their son into the world, and then the trio went together to their hospital room.

Crystal had read about the “golden hour” after birth and talked with friends who had had the experience. She and Nick had even watched a video of their friends’ experience posted on Facebook.

“I got to see a side of Jet that I’ll never see again – he was brand-new to

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