Long-time Valley nurse knows a thing or two about babies

Debbie Larson knows a thing or two about babies.

And that's not just because she's given birth to four of them -- her teenage daughters (17 and 15) as well as her 12-year-old twins were all born at Valley Hospital -- but also because she's seen so many born. Larson, a registered nurse, has worked in Valley Hospital's OB unit for about 20 years now.

Larson has no idea how many babies she's helped bring into the world, and wouldn't even try to guess, she said. But she has been around long enough now that she is there for a whole new generation of moms.

"It's neat," she says, "when sometimes people will come up to me and say, 'You were there for the births of all four of my grandkids,' or, 'You delivered my sister too!'" Even more frequently, she said, she happens to be on duty when a mother she's helped before comes in and delivers second, third or fourth babies. "It's nice when you see the same family over and over."

Larson loves her job. It's the kind of thing that never gets old, she said. "It's always a miracle of some kind when you see a baby born, breathing on its own. It's always amazing."

And there have been plenty of changes to keep things interesting. For starters, the Family Birthing Center that opened in 2000 was actually the second time Larson has moved to new digs. She actually came to the hospital in 1981 (and worked several different nursing positions before deciding on obstetrics), when the hospital was much smaller (a new hospital was built in 1983).

And the way women give birth has gone through some changes as well, Larson said. "There is much more fetal monitoring," she said, "as well as a trend of more epidurals being given. I mean, when I started here, we didn't even have them." Also, Larson noticed that several years ago, women went in for "natural" childbirth and left more quickly after delivering. "Now people don't tend to leave so fast. But things go in cycles."

Larson does more than just help deliver babies, as her unit cares for women and their babies before birth, during and after. But she says the actual labors are her favorite part. "I can't really say why," she said, but then added, "You can get pretty involved. It can get very tiring … but it's still my favorite part."

If Larson were to offer any advice to pregnant women out there, it would be to take advantage of childbirth education classes and arm themselves with as much knowledge about the birth process as possible. "It just gives you that knowledge base so that you're not so afraid -- especially with first-time moms. It helps to be more educated."