‘A beautiful coincidence.’ Babies born to Central KY nurses within minutes of each other
Jenna Johnston and Katelyn Sams, both nurses at Frankfort Regional Medical Center, have been close friends and colleagues for nearly 14 years.
They now share a new bond: They gave birth to girls within 20 minutes of each other at the hospital where they work Jan. 13.
Johnston and Sams worked together in the hospital’s emergency room early in their careers.
Johnston is now the hospital’s clinical charge nurse for diagnostic imaging, while Sams is its director of inpatient services.
“We’ve stayed very close friends,” Johnston said in a phone interview Friday.
Johnston said she and Sams found out they were pregnant at about the same time, and their due dates were four days apart.
“We were able to kind of go through all this process together,” Sams said in a separate interview Saturday.
On Monday, they ended up in the maternity ward at the same time.
Sams said she came into the hospital Dec.17 to have labor induced. On Monday morning, Johnston popped into her room to say she was being admitted too.
“We considered it like a race” to see who would deliver first, Sams said.
Johnston thinks Monday night’s Wolf Moon might have had something to do with the timing.
From about 3-7:25 p.m., when Johnston’s baby was born, she said five babies were delivered at Frankfort Regional.
“They were so busy,” she said, adding that the staff did an “amazing” job.
Having worked in the emergency room, Johnston said she and Sams “were used to those full moon nights.”
“As Jenna and Katelyn welcomed their little ones into the world, cheers and congratulations echoed through the maternity ward. It was a moment of pure happiness that brought together colleagues, friends and families,” the hospital said in a news release.
Sams said the celebratory response “was truly something that I didn’t expect,” she said.
The hospital said the tandem deliveries were “a reminder of the special bonds shared by our team,” the hospital’s release stated.
Sams and Johnston’s postpartum rooms were right next door to each other, which allowed them to introduce their new babies to each other.
“It was really special,” Johnston said.
Sams said they’re “already talking about them being best friends” from birth.
“It’s rare to witness such a beautiful coincidence,” Emily Dial, a certified nurse midwife who delivered Johnston’s baby, said in a news release from the hospital. “Seeing two friends and colleagues welcome their daughters on the same day, just minutes apart, is a memory I’ll cherish forever.”
Johnston said her new daughter, Landry Micah, is her second child. Sams’ daughter, Caroline Lynne, is her first.
“She’s doing great,” Sams said Saturday. “We’re just happy to have her home.”
