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Mesa, AZ (KTVK/KPHO) — A baby bonanza has hit Banner Medical Center’s Intensive Care Unit. Sixteen nurses who work in the ICU are all pregnant at the same time.
“They’re wondering what’s in the water,” said nurse Ashley Atkins.
The nurses say that they didn’t realize how many of them were pregnant at the same time until they created a Facebook group chat, where members kept getting added.
“One after another after another,” said nurse Jolene Garrow.
The majority of the pregnant nurses are due between October and January.
Officials at the hospital say they’ve already arranged for fill-in nurses for the upcoming surge of absences due to maternity leave.
“We’ve been planning for this for months,” said Heather Francis, Director of Nursing for Banner Desert’s Trauma Neural ICU and Medical ICU.
The hospital is also making sure to keep the pregnant nurses healthy while they’re still working.
“There are certain disease processes that we don’t want the nurses to be exposed to. Certain infections,” Francis said. “Also, chemotherapy rugs can be very toxic to the fetus.”
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Melissa Ziedy
phxdigitalcontent@meredith.com602-207-3294
