Susanna Dunlap was 9 months pregnant when she stopped feeling her baby, Bethany, move inside her. In her gut, Susanna knew something was terribly wrong. She immediately went to the Obstetric Emergency Department (OBED) at Huntsville Hospital for Women & Children. 

There was no sound on the doppler. No heartbeat. 

"My life as I knew it also ended in that moment." 

"I was in shock, devastated, and we did not know what was going to come next," Susanna said. 

Susanna and Bethany were only in the OBED for two hours from door to diagnosis, but in that short time, so much more happened than what you would see on a medical record.

"Dr. Hamilton got me cups of water, held my hand, consoled me. My nurse, Diane, was mothering me. Our OBED team was there shepherding us into this new life that we were going to have, where our baby was dead before she was born." 

Bethany was delivered on May 18, 2021, by Dr. Samples and the wonderful Labor & Delivery and OR teams. The nurses were very quick to initiate bereavement and loss protocols so the family was able to make memories and spend as much time together as possible. 

Following delivery, her OB confirmed Bethany died from a true umbilical cord knot which blocked the oxygen and blood flow she needed. True knots occur in fewer than 1% of all pregnancies.

"To me it is comforting to know that she was warm and could hear my heartbeat," Susanna shared. "She was with me at the time she began and ended. I did not lose her. I knew right where she was the whole time." 

Today, Susanna works day in and day out caring for women in that same hospital department. After Bethany died, Susanna had gone back to her career as a nurse practitioner in our Huntsville Hospital Main Emergency Department, but she found herself drawn to the pregnant patients who came in. 

"Usually when someone experiences trauma, they are less likely to go back to those situations. But with stillbirth, you do not leave the site of the trauma. It is you. The womb in a tomb and you carry that with you everywhere."

Susanna chose to put her grief into action. 

"That urge to go and put my grief to work and be present with pregnant patients … I had to act on it," she said. "It felt very instinctual. All the puzzle pieces were lining up for me to make this transition. I have been able to utilize my experience in the Main ED, personal experience as bereaved mother, now a mother with a living child, my formal training … this combines to make me able to provide this specific type of care that I feel is very scarce in our society."

The OBED helps more than 10,000 patients every single year. Their highly trained, specialized team is here 24/7 caring for women experiencing vaginal bleeding, abdominal pain, GYN complaints, and any pregnancy-related complication. Huntsville Hospital was the first in the entire state to open an OBED. What a gift it is to have this resource here in Huntsville. 

This Mother's Day, please make a gift For the Mamas to meet the current needs of our OBED patients and their caregivers.

This unit has an urgent need for a new vital sign machine and a fetal doppler. The equipment will help triage patients more quickly and accurately check babies heartbeats. 

We need a total of $5,000 to fund these requested items. 

"Any support, big or small, is going to improve access and patient outcomes. Support is vital," Susanna said. "You are not just supporting technology, you are supporting the people who give the bad news, the people who put themselves last on their list of people to take care of. Any support is so important the patients we serve and overall women's health."