YRMC's Maternity Ward: The Beginning of a New Era

Vivian Hoagland, who worked as a nurse's aide in Yuma Regional Medical Center's maternity ward the night it opened, is uniquely placed to speak about the growth of the hospital and the town itself. She says they have both become bigger and busier in the past 50 years.

"Anybody that had been here when they were young, and comes by and see this town, they'd never believe it. I mean, it's that big. I don't think people realize just how big Yuma's getting."

Hoagland says YRMC grew alongside Yuma during her 15 years working there in order to meet the needs of an expanding population.

"A lot of business, they really picked up the business. They closed the old county hospital so they all came up there."

Hoagland says she can remember a number of departments were either expanded or opened since the inception of the medical center. Yet she also says a lot of the expansion and innovations in technology that occurred during her career didn't actually affect her job.

"I observed something once in awhile, but not very much. I did the whole 15 years just like that."

Hoagland moved to Yuma from Indiana in 1958 when her husband was transferred to Yuma Proving Ground. She lives in the same house her husband bought for their family when they originally relocated to Yuma 50 years ago.

On arriving in Yuma in 1958, she says, "It was a small place considering what we were used to, but I was kind of surprised to find how small it was."

As her husband became busier with his job, she became restless. "So a friend of mine called, asked if I'd like to work at the hospital back in town, and I said, 'Oh, I'd love to.'"

She found work as an aide to maternity nurses, which she says involved working in the formula room, the nursery, delivery room and even assisting in surgical procedures if she was needed.

But she says, "Usually I worked delivery room" during her daily 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. shifts.

"I got a lot of experience just working," says Hoagland, who never received any schooling related to her specific position. "I didn't even start working back there until my kids were school age. I had a registered nurse with me all the time. I helped and just did what I had to do."

Hoagland, who had worked at a state-run hospital when she lived in Indiana, says YRMC "was beautiful. It was more modern. And everybody was so nice to me. Well, to anybody that they employed, they were nice to them. I enjoyed working there."

Pleasantries weren't reserved for staff either, she says, but extended to patients as well.

"Matter of fact, everybody was usually in a pretty good mood. At first it wasn't so much fun because they didn't know what was coming except unless you had babies before. I really loved it. I love babies anyway."

She says she has seen "some happy times and sad times" in her 15 years working for YRMC. And she can even recall some memorable moments from her first night in the maternity ward.

"The first night we opened, Dr. (Martin) Cohen had a patient down at the old county hospital. Well, he found out one of his patients was down there in labor so he had one of the nurses go down and pick her up, bring her down to the new hospital so he'd be the first doctor to have the first baby in the new hospital."

Another anecdote she recalls occurred inside the delivery room. "This doctor was gonna deliver this girl. And she was putting on a right show. So anyway the baby started coming out and the baby got out and she says, 'Oh, what a relief!' And the doctor says, 'More fun going in than it was coming out, wasn't it?' And we all just about died because she laughed, she thought it was funny."

The delivery room wasn't just a place for laughs, though, she says. "Seeing a delivery. That baby coming out of there, it was just such a marvel to see that."

The worst part of her job, however, involved an issue that hits close to home for Hoagland and her family. "The worst part? Seeing a death of a baby. My boy's lost one child back there in delivery."

Hoagland has also witnessed the birth of many of her grandchildren and been an active part of the birth process. "I was gonna be there anyway. There was no getting by that."

Hoagland misses the friends she has made over the years, some of whom she has lost. "My favorite nurse that I worked with most of the time moved to Arkansas and I heard that she passed away. Alma Taylor was her name. She was in charge of the delivery room out here. Everyone was crazy about her."

She says her husband also passed away nine years ago, but that she has many children and grandchildren in town to keep her busy.

The hospital today, she says, is very different to the one she started at half a century ago.

"You could just see it building up with new doctors coming in as I left. I mean, there wasn't a whole lot of specialists as far as babies were concerned. (Harold) Gordon and (Martin) Cohen were specialists in babies and delivering babies. But by the time I quit, there were quite a few doctors."