Kendra Gardner got to the hospital just in time.
On Tuesday, as Hurricane Dorian swirled in the Atlantic, Gardner learned during an appointment with her Tidelands Health certified nurse midwife that her cervix had started to dilate, a sign she was headed toward labor.
“I kind of had a feeling I was going to go during the storm,” says Gardner, 32, of Murrells Inlet. “My husband (Chauncey Gardner), he was predicting it, too.”
The couple headed home, but Kendra Gardner stayed in regular communication with a friend who works at Tidelands Waccamaw Community Hospital to make sure the hospital would remain open during the storm.

All Tidelands Health hospitals, including Tidelands Waccamaw, have remained open to care for the community during Dorian. Had the hospital been forced to close, Gardner says she would have needed to pack her belongings and travel to another, unfamiliar hospital.
“My friend kept me in the loop that the hospital would be open,” Kendra Gardner says. “Not having to travel was a weight off my shoulders.”

Sure enough, Gardner began to experience strong contractions and headed to Tidelands Waccamaw at about midnight on Thursday. There wasn’t much time to spare – at 3:05 a.m., not long after her arrival and only a few hours before Dorian began to unleash its fury on the region, Gardner delivered a healthy baby girl, Cahja Destiny Gardner, who entered the world weighing 6 pounds, 15 ½ ounces.
“We feel blessed,” Kendra Gardner says. “We are very excited.”
Gardner says she was thankful to get to the hospital before Dorian began to impact the region and has felt comfortable as the storm’s wind and rain swirled outside.
“I feel really safe about the whole situation and how it happened,” she says.