Small-town family grateful for Sanford Health’s connected rural health care

This piece is sponsored by Sanford Health.

When Johanna Unzen was about 12 weeks’ pregnant, she found out she was having twins.

“Twins run in my family,” Unzen said. “So I was not surprised but shocked. We have two children, and now we’re going to have two more!”

For both of her older kids and up until this point, Unzen had received her pregnancy care from Dr. Ellen Hopper in Watertown. The family lives nearby on a farm outside of Waubay and appreciates the level of care accessible to them just a few miles away. But twin pregnancies can come with added complications.

Because of this, Unzen was referred to Sanford Maternal-Fetal Medicine in Sioux Falls. Hopper had determined that the twins were mono-di, which means the babies were in their own sacs but sharing one placenta. This put them at a higher risk of developing complications.

At the maternal-fetal medicine clinic, Dr. Maria Schmoll sat down with Unzen and explained the reasons why she needed to be seen every two weeks. As a former teacher, Unzen appreciated the approach.

“It made me so comfortable knowing that she was not sugarcoating anything,” Unzen said.  “She told me everything that I needed to know.”

At about 15 weeks in the pregnancy, Schmoll noticed signs of twin-to-twin transfusion, which is when one baby has excessive amniotic fluid while the other has very little.

“She caught it very early,” Unzen said. “Luckily, there was no growth restriction between the twins.”

Unzen was referred to specialists in Minneapolis, where she underwent fetal laser surgery. Soon after, the twins’ fluid levels stabilized.

The rest of Unzen’s pregnancy progressed relatively normally until about 28 weeks. At this point, Unzen began leaking amniotic fluid. Her team in Watertown determined the twins were not showing signs of distress, so she was sent home with instructions to come back if the leaking got worse.

“And about a week later, it got worse,” she said.

After confirmation that her water had partially broken, Unzen was airlifted from Watertown to Sioux Falls. Based on the speed of Unzen’s past deliveries, the team needed to get her quickly to a facility that was prepared to care for the babies if they arrived this early.

“My history is that once my water breaks, there’s a baby almost immediately,” Unzen said.

When she arrived in Sioux Falls, Unzen was placed on bed rest. She remained in the hospital for nearly a month under constant monitoring to delay delivery as long as safely possible.

At just under 33 weeks, Unzen woke up at about 6:30 a.m. for her normal testing and checks. After about an hour of testing, nurses unhooked Unzen from the monitors.

“And then 10 minutes after they unhooked me, I started having contractions,” she said.

Contractions were coming every 30 minutes and Unzen informed her nurse that these were the contractions with her last babies that would have signaled it was time to go to the hospital.

“All of a sudden, there were 10 people in the room,” Unzen said.

But one person in particular was missing.

“My husband had gone home the day before because it was Father’s Day,” Unzen said. “He wanted to spend some time with our older boys.”

Unzen called him as soon as her contractions started that morning, but with limited childcare options, he was going to have to bring the older children along for the nearly two-hour drive.

“I knew that was not going to be fast, loading up a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old in the car,” Unzen said.

Within an hour of starting labor, Unzen gave birth to twins Benson and Lincoln. Her husband didn’t make it in time, but luckily her mother was able to be with her and FaceTime her husband – who pulled over on the side of the road – for the birth.

Because the babies came early, they both needed to go to the neonatal intensive care unit. Benson needed intubation, while Lincoln required milder respiratory support.

Unzen’s husband arrived just as she was being wheeled into the recovery room and the babies were being transported to the NICU.

“It was very overwhelming and scary,” Unzen said. “But the nurses there were so kind and informative.”

Benson spent 19 days in the NICU, while Lincoln stayed for 21 days. The Unzen family stayed nearby at the Ronald McDonald House while they waited for the babies to get strong enough to go home and start their new life as a family of six.

Now, as the babies approach their first birthday, you would never know their lives started with these complications. Unzen credits the early detection, expert care and seamless collaboration among providers in Watertown, Sioux Falls and Minneapolis with saving both twins’ lives.

“Without the care team,” Unzen said, “we wouldn’t be here right now.”

Find care made for your pregnancy at Sanford Health.