12/10/2007
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Staff photo by David Leamingfrom the Kennebec Journal
SENATE DISTRICT 24: Mitchell vs. Davis
Senate District 23: Weston vs. Messer
Monitoring usage, checking temperature of heaters can make a big difference
Elementary students meet the challenge and show their reading prowess
Dealer responds in lemon law case
Plenty of space for prayer
SENATE 24: Former lawmaker challenging Mitchell
Festival draws a crowd
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Kennebec Journal
from the Morning Sentinel
SENATE DISTRICT 24: Mitchell vs. Davis
Senate District 18: Gooley vs. Woloson
AUTO DEALER RESPONDS: Dealership involved in lemon law dispute
STARKS: Police make drug arrests
Simple steps can save on hot water
Clinton due to resolve cops' funds
CROSS COUNTRY NOTEBOOK: Cougars thrive at Festival
Ellsbury stepping up for Sox
All of today's:
News | Sports
from the Morning Sentinel
Staff Writer
It's 9 o'clock on a cold Wednesday morning and registered nurse Melissa Emerson is rumbling along a rural road in Unity, heading to a home visit with a new mother and her infant.
Emerson is driving a lime green 2007 Volkswagen Beetle purchased with funds raised by MaineGeneral Health employees for maternity nurses to drive to such visits.
The "Baby Bug" is distinctive, painted with pink, blue and white bubbles and the MaineGeneral logo.
"It's fantastic," Emerson said. "Oh, I love it. Everywhere you go, people's heads are turning to see the words on the car. It really makes people notice."
The vehicle is one of two donated by employees and used by nurses in the maternal health departments at MaineGeneral's hospitals in Waterville and Augusta where the babies were born.
While nurses have been making home visits since 1994, previously they had to use an older station wagon -- or their own vehicles.
"This is just so much better than what we used to have," said Emerson, who has been a maternity nurse at Waterville's Thayer Unit for 22 years and has made home visits for 10. "It's hard not to smile when you're driving it."
Emerson said newborn babies and their mothers stay in the hospital for a much shorter time than they used to, and being able to follow up on them at home allows a continuity of care that is important.
"A lot of it is a follow-up to education and answering questions," she said. "We used to just send people home with instructions, and there you go."
Emerson has traveled all over the state to do follow-ups; sometimes mothers have moved to other places since giving birth, which requires a longer drive for nurses.
"I've gone no farther up than Jackman but I've gone all the way to York," she said.
On this particular day, Emerson had driven from her home in Cornville to Thayer for a 12-hour shift starting at 7 a.m. She gathered up her bag of nursing equipment on the maternity ward, walked down to the parking lot, wiped snow and ice off the car and headed out.
Destination: the home of Julie Shorette and her baby, 4-day-old Carmen Raymond, at an apartment house on School Street in Unity.
Emerson said most mothers appreciate having a nurse check in on them after they have been home a couple of days.
"I think they just like that follow-up reassurance," Emerson said. "Just one more set of eyes."
The baby's father, Matthew Raymond, met Emerson at the apartment door. He was holding the tiny, dark-haired baby who was sleeping comfortably in a pink jumpsuit.
"She was up all last night," a sleepy Raymond said.
Shorette, looking remarkably rested, said she and Raymond switch off staying awake with the baby. Emerson listened to the baby's heartbeat and breathing with a stethoscope, weighed her on a scale and checked her temperature.
"She looks great," Emerson said. "Her color is good."
She and Shorette talked about both mother and daughter and how both were faring. Emerson asked how her stay was at Thayer -- a question she said she always asks as a way to help make improvements if necessary.
"I was comfortable," said Shorette, 18. "The nurses were nice. They were consistent."
On the ride back to Waterville, Emerson said both Shorette and the baby were doing wonderfully.
"It was a really good visit," she said. "To be able to be part of it, for me is really fulfilling. I really like my job anyway but going out to teach and do follow-up -- I really love it."
Susan Pierter, director of public and government relations for MaineGeneral, said the home visits are free for new mothers. Physicians say those visits have a positive impact on a child's life, she said.
Employees donated more than $45,000 for the two "Baby Bugs" as part of the health care system's annual fundraising campaign, which garnered $284,000 for MaineGeneral, the United Way of Kennebec Valley and United Way of Mid-Maine, Inc.
Annette Bowman, director of Maternal Health Services in Waterville, said obstetrics nurses came up with the idea for the vehicles as a way to raise awareness about the free follow-up visits.
"We wanted it to be fun and eye-catching," she said.
Jennifer Riggs, director of Maternal Child Care Services in Augusta, said nurses for years had used their own vehicles for home visits.
"We saw this as a great way to increase our visibility within the Kennebec Valley region," she said.
Amy Calder -- 861-9247
acalder@centralmaine.com
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