THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, November 27, 1994 TAG: 9411230697
SECTION: HAMPTON ROADS WOMAN PAGE: 4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY ELIZABETH SIMPSON, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 107 lines
HERE'S AN instant after babies are born when they take their first gasp of air.
Even though she's seen it a thousand times and more, Susan Katz always marvels at the spine-tingling excitement of the moment.
``I've never truly gotten over the emotion of seeing a child born,'' Katz said. ``It's so exciting for parents that it keeps it exciting for me.''
That enthusiastic attitude is why people call her the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader of the labor and delivery unit. Katz has personally delivered 59 babies, and helped bring into the world so many more she can't keep count. ``Two, three thousand?'' she guesses. And that's not counting all the parents who have taken her child-birth classes.
The joke-cracking, quick-smiling woman has been a labor and delivery nurse at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital for 21 years now, 12 of which have been spent teaching child-birth classes. ``You can tell she loves what she does,'' said Peggy Tallon, who has taken Katz's childbirth classes and had Katz as a nurse for both her children. ``She's very respectful of your body and your feelings. That's very important in a nurse.''
Katz, who's 48, goes back a long time at the hospital. She was born there, when it was known as Norfolk General. She also went to school there to become a registered nurse, then went next door to Children's Hospital of The King's Daughters to work as a pediatric nurse for five years.
She quit that job after her second child was born, and six months later, her aunt, who's also a nurse, called to tell her about a part-time labor and delivery position at Norfolk General.
``I needed some extra money for the holidays so I took it fully expecting to hate the work.''
Instead, she fell in love with it. Over the next two decades, she would see a world of change in the unit.
She sums it up best when she describes the birth of her own two children, who are now 21 and 24. ``You went to the hospital, they checked you in, gave you a gown, shaved you from head to toe, sedated you, and when you woke up your kids were in fourth grade.''
Today mothers are fully conscious and participating in the delivery. Fathers, once banished to the waiting room, are there, too. And that's added a whole new dimension to Katz's work. She's seen mothers and fathers burst into tears when their children are born, and had a couple of fathers faint on her.
That family involvement has made Katz's job much more interesting and brought her closer to the people she treats. She gets cards and letters all the time from former patients, and her face appears in many a family photo album or video.
``People think my brother's in a lot of pictures,'' says Katz, whose brother, Stephen Furst, starred in the movie ``Animal House,'' and the TV series ``St. Elsewhere'' and ``Babylon 5.'' ``I'm in more pictures than he is.''
Her brother may get more press, but Katz's stories rival her movie-star sibling's.
Like the time earlier this year when the husband of a woman about to have a baby called the unit from Haiti, where he'd been shipped with the Navy. Katz transferred his call into the delivery room, just as the woman was about to start pushing the baby out. The wife said a few words to her husband, put the phone receiver on the bed, and had the baby. ``The husband heard the whole thing on the phone,'' Katz said.
The same day the husband typed a letter to Katz thanking her for making sure he listened to his child come into the world.
Katz never knows when the next heartwarming moment will come. She fondly remembers the 8-year-old who witnessed the delivery of his half-brother.
The boy stroked the head of the newborn and said, ``I'm your big brother and I'm going to take care of you.''
``You could have heard a pin drop; the nurses, the doctors, the parents, we were all crying.''
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Most of the time, the birth moments are joyous ones. But Katz also has to handle cases that don't turn out happily. Times when pregnancies are terminated because the child has a congenital anomaly. Or when a mother comes to the hospital to say she can't feel her baby move any more.
``I never say, `I know how you feel,' because I don't. I tell them I can't imagine what they're going through but I feel very, very sorry it's happening.''
There have been times when Katz has cried right along with parents who have had a stillborn child. ``I think nothing of holding the baby and the mother and father all at the same time.'' As a member of the hospital's bereavement task force, she helps parents deal with the loss of a child.
Katz has been teaching childbirth classes 12 years, and five years ago she started teaching childbirth classes in people's homes. Women who must have bed rest because of high-risk pregnancies, and couples who can't attend regular classes hire her to give them personal lessons. That's brought her one step closer to families.
She's likely to get a call in the middle of the night from a mother asking her advice on whether she should go to the hospital. She always carries a beeper so people can reach her any time. ``I'm there for them. Millions of people have my home number.''
From the classroom to the delivery room, Katz provides a listening ear and a caring nature, all with a dose of humor. Mothers often tell her she made them feel like they were the only patient she had.
``I love what I do,'' Katz said. ``And I hope I make a difference.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos by Joseph John Kotlowski, Staff
On cover: Susan Katz
Susan Katz of Sentara Norfolk General Hospital and Amy Davidson...
Katz and Dr. Sharon Sheffield, left...
by CNB