Jenny Maness is using her experience as a Neonatal Intensitive Care Unit (NICU) mom, and the example set by the nurses and providers at Maynard Children’s Hospital at ECU Health Medical Center who cared for her twin sons, to guide and comfort the parents of children in neonatal care from the other side of the isolette.
In 2018, Maness’s water broke at 24 weeks, and she began an inpatient stay at the hospital. Complications led her care team to deliver her identical twin boys, Ryan and Scott, at 25 weeks and three days. The delivery was a success, and both boys began the first four and a half months of their life in the NICU.
For Maness, that frightening start became a life-changing experience.
“I remember feeling so scared and so stressed,” Maness said. “The attending on the night we delivered was Dr. Joseph Ginski, and I remember he made us feel so much more comfortable.
The nurses probably do not even realize how much of an impact they had on me. They were our cheerleaders and kept up with us every step of the way. I still have all of the hand and footprint crafts they made for us.
“They made us feel so comfortable. We were terrified, of course, to touch the boys or do anything really. The nursing staff really encouraged us, they helped us change diapers, give baths and have our skin-to-skin contact. All of the things we wanted to do, but were too scared to try, they helped us find that courage.”
Eventually, Ryan and Scott came home from the hospital. Maness had worked as an X-ray technician for 12 years, but as she had time to breathe and process her experience, she felt called to a different side of healthcare.
“I always say, when you walk through those NICU doors it’s going to change you one way or the other,” Maness said. “For me, it changed me for the better. I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life, so I went back to school.”
Maness started classes at Beaufort County Community College in 2021. In 2023, she graduated with a nursing degree. At first, she was set on working exclusively with NICU families but found that between classes and seeing Ryan and Scott grow into their personalities, she wanted to work with children of all ages. In 2023, she started her nursing career in the Women’s and Children’s Operational Pool at ECU Health, and now divides her time between the NICU, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and General Pediatrics.
“I get to be there for my little tiny babies and I can also play games or blow bubbles with the older kids,” Maness said. “It’s really the best of both worlds for me. Kids are so fun at all ages.”
Today, Ryan and Scott are eight years old. Maness said they are happy, healthy and doing things any kid their age would do, free of any long-term complications.
“They are wild,” she laughed. “Honestly, you would never know they were premature. We are so very fortunate to have the outcome that we did, and I have to credit that to the doctors, the nurse practitioners, the nurses who made all the calls. They did everything just excellent for us, and still do to this day.
“When I started working, a lot of the providers and the nurses told me they remembered my boys,” Maness said. “Things can be a blur here, and that was eight years ago, but they still remember me just from my face. That means so much to me. You can tell they really care and it makes such an impact on every family they come across.”
Maness is proud to offer that kind of compassion to families, and to give parents currently in the shoes she filled eight years ago the perspective of experience — things get better.
“It’s very high anxiety when you have a baby in the NICU, whether they are a micro-preemie or a baby who went to term who might need breathing assistance,” Maness said. “I remember crying and breaking down at the bedside when my boys were here. Letting the parents who need it hear my story, I hope it puts them at ease, lets them know they are allowed to feel comfortable and maybe go home at night and get some sleep.
“It’s the most rewarding thing to tell them, you need a rest. It’s important that parents take care of themselves too, and that they realize, eventually, you will get where you need to be.”
Share your story with us at go.ecuhealth.org/gratitude. Stories like these show the lasting impact of Maynard Children’s Hospital.