'We're Not Alone in This'

‘WE’RE NOT ALONE IN THIS’ Amid pandemic, nurse helps grieving families cherish memories in Iowa maternity ward McKenzie Harreld knew the moment she most feared would come. But she didn’t know how deeply the actions of a kind nurse would rever- berate in her life. Courtney Crowder, Des Moines Register alvin Blake Har- reld’s short staccato wails — more alarm Cclock than classic baby cry — bounce off the walls, echoing through the delivery room. They were earsplitting evidence that the steroids meant to ensure he’d be strong enough to make his earthly debut at 37 weeks had worked, and worked well, mom McKenzie Har- reld says. Nurse Kelsey Short- ley places the newborn on McKenzie’s chest, and lit- tle Calvin promptly pees all over himself and his moth- er. She and dad, Clayton, laugh. Their baby is OK, all systems working. If these young parents’ Clayton and McKenzie Harreld hold their four-month-old son, Calvin, at their home in Slater on Feb. 17. adoration had a sound, its for,” McKenzie says. “I She knew this moment noise would rival Calvin’s just wanted that happi- would come, the tragic caterwauling, reverberating ness.” foil to her new joy. She well beyond their suite’s Ten short minutes lat- knew she couldn’t put it walls. er, her contractions start off any further. “It was a love I’ve nev- anew. The doctor looks at Planners all their lives, er felt before, and it was McKenzie: Ready to push the Harrelds like to have a that overwhelming joy again? blueprint, to know exactly that we’d been praying She nods her head yes. how everything is going to happen, in what order, and to sort out all their emotions beforehand. For weeks, they worked through the logistics of this scene, checked their feelings and tried to gauge their reactions. But then came the silence. At home, Cherish Shu- ka’s phone rings. A nurse at Mary Greeley Medical Center and a photogra- pher, she’s off work, but anticipated this call. She had offered to take snap- shots of the family of four in the few fleeting hours they’d number as such. She grabs her camera and sets off into the night. The coronavirus pan- Clayton and McKenzie Harreld hold their four-month-old son, Calvin, at their home in Slater on Feb. 17. demic has interrupted an untold number of plans, forcing even the most ar- dent of life architects to face an uncertain future and reckon with a vari- able reality. In hospitals across America, emer- gency plans become best laid plans when surges hit. Doctors create procedures but break them when the difference is life and death. A new need arises; someone steps up. And a couple of young parents in a maternity ward have decided they want to remember what they knew would come but couldn’t really prepare for, and a nurse decides to help them. Birthways nurse Cherish Shuka had never been in the room for a stillborn delivery, but agreed when asked to offer Click. Click. Click. grieving families stillbirth photography. The shutter of Cher- ish’s camera is just audi- of such loss, McKenzie drove to her first OB ap- enzie had seen herself as ble over the room’s din. and Cherish know what pointment. Twelve weeks a mom, imagining cheer- Each click captures the they’ve been called to do along, the ripple effects of ing at her kids’ games and crossroads that would — to break the silence. COVID-19 closures had tournaments just like her empower and bond two pushed her initial eight- parents had. women, one in front of the WHEN EVERYTHING week meeting back a Both from farm fami- lens and one behind it. CHANGED — BOTH month. lies in small central Iowa While most of us are TIMES She and Clayton, both towns, both athletic, just starting to weigh 26, always wanted chil- McKenzie and Clayton how we’ve been changed A mix of elation and dren, at least two, but met as freshman members by the past year and con- adrenaline flowed through probably three, she says. of the Briar Cliff Univer- sider how to make sense McKenzie’s veins as she For her whole life, McK- sity basketball teams and McKenzie Harreld shows off her baby bump on July 18, when she was about 22 weeks along. | The box McKenzie and Clayton Harreld used to reveal their pregnancy to her family, who are all big doughnut fans. almost mechanical pump- “It was a love I’ve never ing was proof they really felt before, and it was were pregnant, that her that overwhelming joy imagined life was coming that we’d been praying closer to reality. for. I just wanted that COVID-19 wasn’t a happiness.” huge concern, her doc- McKenzie Harreld tors said. The disease was new, but there wasn’t compelling evidence that quickly paired off, each the virus would affect her one falling in love with pregnancy. Do what ev- the other’s kindness. They eryone else is doing, they got engaged on Easter in said. Mask up. Wash your 2016, made their home hands. in Slater about a year lat- About two months later and tied the knot on a er, McKenzie lay on an summer afternoon. exam table, Clayton sitting After trying for a cou- by her side, as a sonogra- ple of months, two lines pher wielded the wand appeared on McKenzie’s for their first ultrasound. McKenzie Harreld holds a sonogram of her twins in their nursery. pregnancy test in March Rorschach-esque blobs — just as a new virus be- moved across the screen. “This is your first ultra- their faces, but the cou- gan seeping into Iowa. The couple watched duti- sound, isn’t it?” she asks. ple’s eyes were as big and The technician found fully, unsure of what they Uh-huh, they say. bright as flash bulbs. Con- the baby’s heartbeat easi- were seeing. “Well, you’re having sidering McKenzie wasn’t ly, and McKenzie breathed The technician seems twins.” gaining extra weight and a sigh of relief. That fast, surprised. Masks covered half technicians always found a heartbeat quickly, no Harrelds’ reimagined life one ever thought to look collapsed. around for a second, doc- “You can’t put into tors told them. words when you get the They were going to news that you’re pregnant, have a boy and a girl — just all the excitement the American dream. you feel. But it’s double, By then, nearly half- triple that when you get way through the preg- the news the other way,” nancy, the Harrelds had Clayton says. prepared for their life as “It was just everything parents, planned a nursery changed, in the worst way and started buying essen- imaginable.” tials. But then the second News of twins felt like shoe: The babies were far starting over, McKenzie Birthways nurse Cherish Shuka prepares to give a newborn a bath at Mary enough along that both of says. Now, they needed a Greeley Medical Center on Feb. 17. them — Calvin and his new plan: two cribs, two sister, Blakely — would chairs, two mobiles. This need to be delivered. new reality took awhile to sink in, but soon McK- AT THE BEDSIDE, enzie and Clayton “could THROUGH A VIEW- visualize the two of them FINDER running around together,” she says. Cherish always under- The babies lay head to stood that her work as a feet, like a fetal yin and labor and delivery nurse yang. Her feet were low would come with heart- on McKenzie’s stomach break. Even in the hos- and his feet were high, pital’s most joyous unit, so they could always tell she knew not every story who was kicking when. would have a happy end- At night, Clayton read ing. McKenzie Harreld looks at her daughter Blakely’s footprint, which she the twins “Time for Bed,” keeps with other mementos in a handcrafted box her dad made. An extrovert and an a picture book McKenzie empath, she’s naturally memorized as a child long bubbly, with a spirit so before she ever learned to she says. They went in for an- vibrant and energetic it’s read. On weekends, they “I was really dehy- other appointment at 32 contagious. But speculat- redesigned their nursery: drated, and I didn’t have weeks, just over a month ing how she would feel two cribs, two chairs, two an appetite, but I knew from when they’d give about a fetal death, plan- mobiles. I needed to stay healthy, birth. The technician mea- ning how she would com- A routine formed. so I’d wake myself up sured the baby boy and fort those patients, was In early September, and eat and wake myself listened to his heart. All “terrifying,” she says. they went to a family up and drink fluids,” she good. A Level Two hospi- gathering, seeing a rela- says. Then, the girl. The so- tal, Mary Greeley doesn’t tive who later tested pos- She called her doc- nographer furrowed her see many high-risk births. itive. They took tests to be tors, but they held steady. brow, moving the ultra- A nurse for nearly two safe and got their results years, Cherish had been simultaneously. “It was just everything changed, in the on shift when a stillborn Him, negative. Her, worst way imaginable.” was delivered, but not in positive. Clayton Harreld the room. Waiting and She thought back to wondering when she was what the doctors said: There was no reason to sound wand around and going to be at a patient’s No compelling evidence.

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