Labor & Delivery, Maternity Services I Andrus Pavilion
Listen to Olivia Haynes’ story
A Delivery Emergency, A Lucky Boy
In 2020, while living just steps from St. John’s Riverside Hospital, I was pregnant with my first child under the care of Dr. Berdichevsky at the Boyce Thompson location. Near the end of my pregnancy, she discovered my baby was breech with his feet dangling — a rare and dangerous position. She warned me: if my water broke, I needed to get to the hospital immediately. It would be an emergency. A C-section was scheduled for September 21st.
We didn’t make it that far.
On September 17th — my son’s godparents’ anniversary and his godfather’s birthday — my water broke at 10:52 am, and something hard came with it. We raced to the ER, trying to reach my OB on the way. By 11:02 we’d arrived, thrown our keys at valet, and were running for Labor and Delivery. A janitor saw us coming, saw how much fluid I was losing, and swiped us through the doors without wasting a word.
I told the nurses my water had broken, and something was coming out. They moved instantly. I knew it was serious when I watched them pull a doctor out of a live birth in the next room to come to help me.
In the OR, the team prepared everything in minutes. My OB arrived, having canceled every afternoon appointment to be there. The anesthesiologist was told to put me under immediately. By 11:17 — just 25 minutes after my water broke — my C-section was complete, and Finn was born.
It happened so fast that my husband was left outside the room. He caught a glimpse of Finn before our son was rushed to the NICU.
I woke up two to three hours later. The doctor who delivered Finn alongside Dr. Berdichevsky was there and told me, “You were very lucky — you should name him Lucky.” Finn was in the NICU with some breathing issues, but he was alive.
The first thing I asked the nurses was: “Did I do the right thing?”
They told me I saved his life.
Because it was COVID, only one parent was allowed with the baby at a time — but one nurse understood exactly what I needed. She saw how traumatized I was and made sure my husband and I got to see Finn together for the first time. She brought me tea. She reassured me. She was a godsend, for my body and for my mind. What could have been a tragedy became, because of that team, a survival story — and warmth and calm were their superpower the entire way through.
I’ve been back to St. John’s three times since — twice for a miscarriage and the care that followed, and once for the planned, seamless C-section that brought my second son, Seamus, into the world. When we came back, the nursing staff recognized us. They were thrilled to see us — they told me our first delivery had become a textbook training case for the whole staff on handling that exact rare emergency, and they were proud to have played a part in our story. We weren’t a number. We were people to them, and we felt it every time.
I’ve told friends who have delivered at other hospitals across the tri-state area about what happened to us. They don’t know what they’re missing. St. John’s Riverside didn’t just deliver my babies — but with warmth and strong acumen they saved his life.
“My water broke a week early at home, which was concerning as my baby was breech — a true emergency. In just 25 minutes from my house to the delivery table, the team at St. John’s Riverside delivered him safely. The doctors and nurses didn’t just deliver my son — they saved his life. When I came back for my second son, the staff remembered us. We weren’t a number. We were people to them.”