Leaving her mark, one crochet hat at a time
Katelin Maulden always knew she wanted to be a nurse. Growing up in Columbus with a mother who spent 25 years working in the ICU, nursing wasn't just a career choice, it was woven into her DNA.
"I shadowed my mom one day and I was like, oh, I love this," the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing Bachelor of Science in Nursing student recalls. By her senior year of high school, Maulden had enrolled in a State Tested Nursing Assistant (STNA) program, and by the summer before college, she was already working patient care at a hospital back home.
Now a junior pursuing her dream of working in labor and delivery, Maulden has found a way to blend her passion for nursing with another love: crocheting. It started with a hat. During her OB clinical rotation, she noticed that the standard-issue newborn hats given to babies right after delivery were thin, disposable, and uninspired. Boys especially got the short end of the stick. "I thought how fun it would be to make a little hat that mom and dad can keep in a box for the rest of their life — just something to remember their experience by?" So, she picked up her crochet hook and went to work.
Maulden holding a crocheted hat and toys
The response from the very first mom who received the hat stopped Maulden in her tracks. "She said I needed to keep doing this and gave me a hug — even though I had only been there for a couple of hours — then she asked me to get in the picture with the baby wearing the hat.”
Maulden gave away four or five hats before her OB rotation wrapped up, but she wasn't done. When she began orientation at Cincinnati Children's Hospital on a major organ transplant floor, she knew she needed to adapt. So, she crocheted a tiny dinosaur for one child and a little jellyfish for another. "As I start getting into the peds rotation, I'm going to give those out."
The idea is personal. Maulden remembers being seriously ill as a child and receiving a small stuffed animal from a paramedic. "I've kept it ever since," she says. "I hope to do that for somebody else just so they know they'll get through it and they'll be OK."
Beyond the crocheting, what drives Maulden is the connection that nursing makes possible. "The one thing about becoming a nurse is that you're the one at bedside consistently," she explains. "It's really the nurse's responsibility to get in there, make a connection, and educate."
Labor and delivery remains her favorite rotation as she loves the one-on-one patient ratio and the depth of the experience, with the NICU running a close second. "Postpartum is very joyful and happy, but in the NICU you're able to be there for moms whose babies are born a little too early. I just like helping parents get through those hard times."
Maulden at the UC College of Nursing campus
Maulden came to UC drawn by the UC nursing program reputation and a desire to branch out on her own, and she has not regretted her decision. Her clinical experiences at UC Medical Center have been a highlight, and her professors have left a lasting impression. "I've had a couple of professors who really stood out to me, and I wouldn't have the knowledge that I have now without them. You can tell they have a lot of passion and really care about their students."
Maulden has been accepted to a co-op position in the mother baby unit at UC Medical Center beginning this summer — the very environment where her crocheting mission first took shape. That role means she will have even more opportunities to place a handmade hat on a newborn's head and hand a family a keepsake they will treasure for decades.
She has already set her sights beyond that, hoping to one day land in labor and delivery full time, where she can keep making hats and keep making memories for families on one of the most significant days of their lives. "It's something so simple for me to do," she says, "and I love crocheting." For the moms and babies on the receiving end, it is clearly much more than that.
Featured image: Newborn hats crocheted by Katelin Maulden / Photo provided.
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