Nurse Discovers She Delivered Her Son's Wife as a Baby
Image: Mary Ann West with Kelsey Poll
Labor and delivery nurses deliver countless babies during their careers. Sometimes it’s hard to remember all of them. But each story is unique and sometimes, unforgettable. That’s exactly what happened in the case of Mary Ann West and Baby Kelsey Poll.
On June 15th, 2001, the experienced L&D nurse at Lakeview Hospital in Bountiful, Utah helped deliver her future daughter-in-law. She didn’t know at the time, but their lives would forever be intertwined.
West was the first to hold Kelsey, weighing 6 lbs. 6 oz., after she was delivered. “We take them over to a warmer where we can weigh them, measure them, do footprints,” said West.
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Image: Mary Ann West with Baby Kelsey Poll in June 2001
Kelsey’s mom, Stacy Poll, was nervous throughout the hospitalization about being overwhelmed by having three children under the age of three and working full time. West, a mother of three, was able to relate to Poll and offer comforting advice. She had given birth to her third child, a boy named Tyler, a year earlier. Tyler would later marry Kelsey.
“I’d had Tyler the year before, and he was my third [child],” West said. “I told Stacy about that, and how my kids had reacted to their new little brother. ‘You’ve got this, girl,’ I told her. ‘You can do this.’ We bonded over that, and it helped her to become more relaxed.”
“It's like I had both of my moms in the room with me when I was born,” Kelsey said. “That’s something that's really touching.”
Image: Mary Ann West, Baby Kelsey Poll, and her mother Stacy Poll at time of delivery
Paths Crossed
Tyler and Kelsey started dating in 2021 and became engaged in 2023. Throughout the entire course of their relationship, they didn’t quite realize the connection until looking through an old baby album looking for pictures for the wedding video. The families always thought there was the possibility of a delivery room connection because of the timing but it was never confirmed.
“Kelsey had told me that Mary Ann was a labor and delivery nurse, and she and Tyler had joked that maybe she’d brought me ice chips when I was in the hospital,” Poll said. “I thought the odds were slim that she’d have been there. But in the back of my mind, I guess I wondered, ‘Could it be?’”
Not until they discovered a picture of Tyler’s mom holding Kelsey in the delivery room. “I turned around and was like, ‘That's definitely my mom,’” he said. “That was a really cool, big shock to us when we found that out.”
Kelsey then found her birth documentation and Tyler was able to confirm his mom’s handwriting.
“I thought it was really cool — it made me feel grateful to know I had this tie to my new family,” said Kelsey. “I always wanted to have a good relationship with my future parents, and it also confirmed that I want to be with Tyler for the rest of my life.”
Image: Hospital birth certificate filled out by Mary Ann West for Kelsey Poll
“There are some things that are too, are just too strange and strong to be a coincidence and that’s exactly how I feel here,” Stacy added.
Image: Kelsey Poll and Tyler West on their wedding day - Abbe White Photography
“She was with me the entire time, telling me, ‘Honey, it’s going to be okay,’” Poll said. “When Kelsey was born, she handed her to me and said, ‘Welcome to the world, princess.’ I just always remembered her kindness.”
“I’m just so thankful that Tyler found her and she’s now part of our family. We’ve loved her from Day 1, and it’s like it was meant to be. Kelsey is the one,” West added.
