As a working mom with two sons, Jocelyn Ruiz is not used to sitting still. Thanks to donors, she didn’t have to when she was in labor with her latest child, Elijanel.

Donor gifts provided the Mercy Health — Veard Family Birthing Center with remote fetal monitors. These allow mothers in labor the option to move around rather than being confined to a bed or even a room.

“The old monitors were hard-wired,” Jocelyn says. “Because the new one is wireless, I could move around, which gave me so much more flexibility. It made it easier for my family, too. We could walk around together and see people in the waiting room.”

The new monitors increase patient comfort, while letting health care professionals still closely monitor everything happening with the baby. Moms can even use them while bouncing on a birthing ball.

“Moving around can really help get labor going,” Jocelyn says.

She’s really happy that she was able to do what she needed to do as a mom going through labor. If she needed to walk, she could. If she thought sitting on a birthing ball would help, she would - without ever once worrying that something could happen to her baby and she wouldn’t know it.

“I want to express my gratitude to those who made it possible to have these monitors,” she says. “Their contribution really made my labor much easier because I could still be mobile.”