11 staff members at the New Hampshire hospital are pregnant at the same time: 'We feel grateful'

It wouldn't be uncommon to encounter a situation where a few colleagues are pregnant simultaneously. However, imagine the astonishment when not one or two, but eleven colleagues find themselves expecting around the same time. This extraordinary occurrence took place at Wentworth-Douglass Hospital in Dover, New Hampshire. In fact, one of the eleven colleagues has already given birth earlier this month, as reported by Good Morning America.

Kendal Towle, a general surgery nurse practitioner, said, "It was one person after another, and then here we all are." She described the whole situation as "a domino effect." A certified registered nurse anesthetist, Serena Swanson, shared jokingly, "We kept asking what's in the water." She works as a certified registered nurse anesthetist. Another certified registered nurse anesthetist, Alexa Hayes, said that the coincidences are remarkable as it's the first time that many of her expectant colleagues are working together in the same surgical services department.

Hayes added that they have not had a lot of people pregnant for many years. She had her daughter in 2022, and it seems everyone got pregnant after that. "I was like, why not jump on the train again? So here we are," said Hayes, who will be having her second child in September. "It's been wonderful to share what I've experienced over the last 16 months and then to be able to share this moment with these wonderful working moms and first-time moms and be able to experience this all together," she added.

The first staff who delivered her child was Swanson. She gave birth to her daughter, Everett, through C-section on May 9 at their hospital, Wentworth-Douglass. Swanson said that they call themselves "the preglets." After Swanson, the next one expecting to give birth in June is Jenny Miles, and then Jen Jones, a CRNA, she will deliver in July.

Three "preglets," Towle, Emily Piche, and Sasha Thomas, a CRNA, are due to deliver in August. In the fall, they have Hayes and surgical technologists Grace McManus and Madison Smeal, who will deliver in September and anesthesia technologist Elizabeth Sullivan and endoscopy RN Justine Brenan are due in October.

"We're very blessed to be able to have this opportunity in our working environment. We feel really honored to work at a family-valued center where we can all be pregnant at the same time and still take our time with our babies afterward, and I think we just feel grateful," Hayes said.

She added that it's nice to have this new partnership with colleagues and patients. "When you work in health care, you inevitably bond with your co-workers over the highs and lows that come with patient care, but to be able to bond with them on a personal level and get to be able to experience this with them is really special," she said.

In another similar story, ten nurses and one doctor at Liberty Hospital in Liberty, Missouri, were all pregnant at the same time. The hospital shared a picture of all of them on Facebook and captioned it, "We are expecting a BABY BOOM at The Birthing Center! Ten of our labor and delivery nurses are expecting their own bundles of joy this year, beginning with the first baby due in three weeks! Pictured here, they grow in gestation from right to left. Congratulations and very best wishes to our amazing moms-to-be!"