FEATURE
‘A hole in the fabric of our community’ The loss of labor and delivery at Bonner General is the end of an era of safety, care and compassion
Bonner General Health’s announcement March 17 that it would end labor and delivery services ripped a hole in the fabric of our community. Generations of North Idaho residents were born at our hospital, proudly bearing the place name of Sandpoint, Idaho, on their birth certificates. Effective May 19, homegrown babies will be a rarer thing, familiar physicians’ faces will not greet the next generation and the essential services that safely ushered in new life will be gone. Birth is suddenly a more dangerous endeavor in North Idaho. Read on for a sense of what BGH has been to this community, including a place of comfort and the source of life-saving care, from a number of local women who volunteered to share their stories with the Reader. — Jen Jackson Quintano
Judy York
My son was born in Coeur d’Alene almost 26 years ago, and we moved to Sandpoint not long after. My daughter was born at Bonner General in 2001. Both deliveries were atypical. Neither of my kids were able to come out naturally because my contractions were either too far apart or didn’t happen at all. With my daughter, my water broke with what is called a high leak. The doctor said contractions would start within 24 hours, but they didn’t. When I finally came in to get labor induced, they had to give me the highest level of pitocin to get things moving. After delivery, I lost blood in both cases — enough for me to have to stay an extra day. I tell people, had my children been born 100 or more years ago, I likely would not have survived. I am thankful I didn’t have to drive to Coeur d’Alene during these complications and am saddened we are losing such a valuable resource for women and their babies.
Carlie Johanson
My labor kept starting and stopping. The contractions were very intense, but spaced 20 minutes apart for hours. Since it was my second child, I knew what to expect, and something felt off. I asked if I could come to the hospital even though my contractions were far apart. I rushed through registration and hurried to the delivery room. As the nurse was hooking me up to the fetal monitoring, I could tell she was stressed. The heartbeat was much slower than was safe. They tried moving me into different positions to perk the baby up, but nothing was working. The OB came in calm, steady, and listened. Within minutes she said we would need to deliver the baby 12 / R / April 6, 2023
as quickly as possible. I asked if I could hold him after he was born. She let me know that the situation was critical and that I would be under general anesthesia. I asked if my partner could be with me, and she said that they didn’t allow support people while the mother is unconscious. My heart broke. I was rushed onto a gurney and down the hall. As we burst through the doors into the OR, I watched my husband trailing behind us, fear in his eyes. At the last moment, the OB tossed him a set of scrubs. She knew he was an ICU nurse at another hospital and made the call to let him in. It was a defining moment for me. To experience the care and accommodation, the speed, decisiveness and professionalism — it helped me feel ready. In a whirlwind, people introduced themselves, started IVs, strapped things on me and added a fetal heart monitor. That is when the doctor gave a signal to everyone to freeze. The room got silent. I asked what was wrong. Nothing was wrong; the heart rate had finally come up! The room relaxed. I heard it and saw it in the faces. I was cleared to go back to L&D to deliver my son without intervention. I am grateful for the speed and professionalism that day. I’m crying while typing this. I want everyone to know the significance of my experience, and the gratitude I feel for BGH.
Jessica Bowman
I had both of my daughters at BGH. Isabella was delivered by Dr. Honsinger, the same doctor who delivered my little sister 16 years earlier. My younger daughter, Etta, was delivered in the same room. Etta’s labor and delivery went smoothly. She was born apparently healthy. Three or four hours after her
birth, the nurse came in to check on her. Phyllis. I’ll never forget Phyllis. She calmly started doing tests that I’d not seen done with my older daughter. Cool as a cucumber, Phyllis took my baby, put her on oxygen and called the doctor. Etta was born with transient tachypnea; basically, her lungs were still trying to breathe fluid. Her oxygen levels were in the low 80s, and she was suffocating. Etta spent three days in the hospital nursery on oxygen. Had we been at home, she would have had permanent brain damage. The maternity ward — Phyllis, especially — saved my baby.
Jonell Anderson
Advanced. Maternal. Age. Duhnduhn-duhn. I was a late-37-year-old when my spouse and I decided to try to have a baby. It was a difficult and well-considered choice. A purposeful one. I worked hard to prepare my body for the opportunity. But pregnancy did not come easily for us. When all the basics had been covered and I still wasn’t pregnant at 39, I decided to look into further treatment, and my first stop was an OB at Sandpoint Women’s Health. She recommended we flush my fallopian tubes, and we scheduled the procedure two weeks out. As luck would have it, I got pregnant before I went in for that procedure. Yay! But now we had another big decision to make. Knowing that my due date was likely after my
40th birthday, we had to choose whether to go with the perceived safety of a conventional birth or to follow my heart for a home birth. I split the difference, choosing a birth center a mere five minutes from the hospital, should any complications arise. The stars aligned and I had a textbook birth, in a tub, on my terms. But I never would have made that choice if I didn’t have access to BGH’s OB care as a back-up. In fact, I likely never would have tried to start a family knowing that all my prenatal appointments were over an hour away.
Amy Sutliff
I have three beautiful sons, all of which I gave birth to at Bonner General. My first-born son was delivered by Dr. Bowden. Dr. Algoe delivered my second son and Dr. Conner delivered
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