Giving birth to twins at L+M Hospital included life-threatening complications for Elaine Umana, RN, but it also solidified her decision to become a nurse – and to work at L+M.
Elaine Umana, RN, says she wouldn’t be a nurse today if not for the compassionate care she received when she came to L+M to deliver twins.
Her journey to motherhood was plagued with unexpected moments, including two premature baby girls, preeclampsia and an emergency trip to Yale New Haven Hospital for a major complication.
Along the way, however, during some of her darkest moments, nurses at L+M and Yale New Haven hospitals were at her side, supportive, encouraging, skillful. And perhaps most of all, compassionate.
Umana credits two of those L+M nurses as the main reasons she decided to become a nurse: Gail Barrington, RN, of Labor, Delivery, Recovery and Postpartum, and Deborah Fredriksen, RN, from Critical Care.
She crossed paths with Barrington first when she was diagnosed with preeclampsia. She was panicked when doctors said they’d need to induce labor.
“Gail brought me so much comfort. I felt like my mom was there,” Umana recalled. “She said, ‘You got this! You’re doing a great job, take a deep breath.’ And then she explained everything: ‘You’re going to feel this; this is going to happen.’ I suddenly felt relaxed. I felt like I was being taken care of.”
After delivery, one of her two girls went directly to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Umana tried to breastfeed her other baby but felt like she was going to pass out. Before long, she was transported to the CCU, where she met Fredriksen.
“I call her my angel,” she said. “I tell her, ‘You were the reason I became a nurse – the love, the care that you gave to me. I realized I wanted to provide that kind of care to others. I wasn’t just a diagnosis; I was a new, scared mom who didn’t know what was happening.”
When an internal bleed was discovered, Umana was transported to YNHH for an emergency embolization to stop the bleeding. In the critical care unit, Umana once again met nurses who delivered kindness and encouragement. They told Umana they would get her back to be with her twins as soon as they could. “They understood how important it was for me, and it was also their way of saying, ‘You’re going to get better; we’re going to get you back there,’” she said.
Umana eventually returned to L+M to see her two healthy girls, Audrey and Bella, and with a clear mind about her future. She had been debating going to school to be either a physician assistant or nurse. “After the experiences with my nurses, I just knew,” she said. “I wanted to be a nurse.”
During her job interview for a nursing position, she was asked why she wanted to work specifically at L+M. Umana shared part of her story, saying, “If this is how the nurses at L+M take care of their patients – with love and compassion – then I want to be part of that.”
Umana was hired June 3, 2024, a day before her daughters’ first birthdays. And by the way, she’s pregnant again. She’s expecting another girl.
