UNC Rex nurses reflect on being pregnant while working on frontlines of the pandemic

A special photograph from the early days of COVID-19 is a reminder of the great sacrifice frontline health-care workers make to serve others.

In the picture, four pregnant emergency-care nurses with UNC Rex Health Care celebrated the promise of new life during the most uncertain moments of the pandemic.

The image was captured in April 2020 and went viral on social media. The four expectant co-workers held up a message for the outside world. Emergency Department nurse Courtney Hart, who was in the picture,explained, “One of the girls said one day, hey, let’s do those signs, you know: ‘Our babies came to work for you so you stay home for us.’ "

The posed portrait was a short break from the serious concerns involving COVID-19 precautions and the potential risks faced by the staff.

“We all just took the best precautions we could in that, if you were pregnant, we tried to keep our pregnant nurses away from patients that we knew had just had COVID,” Hart said.

One by one, the four nurses left the emergency room for the delivery room.

“Everybody had healthy babies. It’s been quite a crazy year, honestly, having what we like to call our pandemic babies,” Hart said, with a chuckle.

Hart’s son Jackson, her third child, recently celebrated his first birthday.

“Yes, I have two girls and then our boy Jackson. He rounded out the bunch for us,” Hart said.

Now back on the job, Hart remembers the brief relief of last summer when it seemed the viral threat was passing. However, the threat returned along with challenges like receiving more patients than the number of available beds. At the same time, locally and nationally, there has been a significant shortage of nurses.

According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the nursing shortage is expected to continue for several more years. The Bureau estimates that one million new registered nurses will be needed by 2020 to meet health-care demands.

“We are constantly looking for candidates and interviewing, and we are using every inch of the emergency department to see patients right now,” Hart said, who’s latest duties as nurse supervisor now includes conducting that search.

For her, it’s the pictures of her colleagues’ babies and her own son which helps put it all in perspective.

“I’ve got all our articles and stuff from the last year saved, so that he can see he was famous before he was even born,” she said.