PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – When Iris Barger’s father told her to get an education, she picked nursing. Now, 56 years later, she looks back on a lifetime of sharing her wisdom and experience while caring for new moms before and after birth.
After nearly six decades, Barger will retire from the Labor and Delivery Unit at Emanuel Medical Center in North Portland.
Barger told KOIN 6 she spent this time helping up to 56,000 mothers – and more has changed than just the uniforms.
“The technology in medicine has been phenomenal,” Barger said. “When I came, we did not have ultrasounds, monitors, epidurals. Now we have the NICU…Now we’re saving babies, you know, 23 weeks. Even research on 22 weeks, so that’s amazing.”
Barger, at age 79, still does 12-hour shifts and said she looks forward to each day on the job. Families keep in touch with her, giving her “kudos” and keeping her mind active.
She shares a love of learning with everyone, from patients to coworkers. She says it’s all about compassion and “treating them like they really are important.” She has photo albums filled with pictures sent from families, too.
One captures the story of a woman whom she said had two babies “against all odds.”
“She named her baby after me,” Barger said.
Iris’s coworkers admire and respect her, calling her a “kindness walking Valium.”
“There’s this calm, gentle, wonderful lady who can peel any anxious person off of the ceiling,” said nurse practitioner Marybeth Tyler.
But all chapters must end, and Barger said she’ll remember her work with nostalgia.
“This is my family, my home for 56 years,” she said. “Now is the time.”