Oh baby! A dozen nurses in the same UMass ICU have newborns, all of them boys

WORCESTER ― There are a great many things that come in sets of 12. There are 12 Apostles, 12 numbers on a clock face, 12 Zodiac signs, 12 jurors to make a decision, and in the ICU of UMass Memorial Medical Center, there are a dozen nurses who have all welcomed baby boys since January of last year.

What's more, a 13th bundle of joy is on his way, rounding out the group to a full baker's dozen.

Valerie Fernald is the nurse manager at 2 Lakeside ICU and said that after the fourth or fifth pregnancy announcement she thought, "Wait a second, what is going on?!"

Fernald is a mother of four boys and said it's been wonderful to see the group support one another as they become parents, some for the first time.

Nurse Steve Sainte welcomed his second child, Landon, in April of last year, one of the first babies to be born from the group.

"We've really been a support system for one another," he said. "Landon is my second, so I remember having a conversation with someone who was having their first. We were talking about baby bottles, and I said something like, 'Well if they don't like this type of bottle ...' and she stopped me and said, 'Wait that's a thing?!' We're just here for each other and it's great."

Sainte added it's been wonderful to be able to offer emotional support but also "shamelessly share photos of babies" with the group.

Landon isn't sleeping through the night yet and neither is Mateo, the son of nurse Kathryn Coreas.

"Neither of them are sleeping through the night so we come to work, we're going through the same thing," Sainte said with a laugh. "We constantly get asked how many hours of sleep we got last night."

Coreas had Mateo in June 2023, just one month before nurse Meggy Rossi gave birth to her son, Evan.

"We're just rooting for one another," Coreas said. "We're all going through the same thing at around the same time and it's nice to be able to know where we're coming from."

"We're all working in what at times can be a very stressful environment," Fernald said. "So, we're already really connected, and now this."

As for staffing to cover parental leave for a dozen employees, the trio of nurses applauded Fernald for managing the team as well as possible, adding the births were "just staggered enough" to keep things running smoothly.

Of the dozen boys already born, six were born in 2023 and six in 2024, and two share the name Benjamin.

"It would have been three Benjamins if I had my way," Coreas said with a giggle, adding she ended up naming her cat Benji instead.

Several of the babies have met one another and have had playdates, including a couple 1st birthday parties and even a trip to a local winery.

Sainte, Coreas and Rossi said their three have yet to meet but surely will in time.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Oh baby! A dozen nurses in the same UMass ICU have newborns, all of them boys