Ann Cook
In Town: Ann Cook works in Springfield, Mo., at Cox Medical Center as a Registered Nurse in the Maternal Newborn Unit. She has worked there, off and on, for 20 years. Ann said, “I take care of moms and babies. After the babies are born they come to my unit. I don’t just take care of the mothers or the babies. I take care of both.”
In the Country: Ann said, “I garden. I raise a big sweet corn crop every year. I raise chickens. I have cow/calf pairs. I have eleven cows and five calves right now. I have raised pigs. I have had sheep, and actually made a profit on them.”
She lives on a farm near Niangua, Mo., with her husband, Bob.
How the two work together: “I’m dealing with new life and the early nurture of that life and getting moms and dads off to a good start. In all of my farming and gardening, with the help of God, you’re nurturing plants and getting them off to a new life, and certainly with baby calves. I’ve delivered a lot of calves. I’ve even given them mouth to mouth resuscitation. When a baby calf is sick, I think about the antibiotics we use for people and I think this would work for their symptoms. In the healthcare profession we’re concerned with cleanliness. We’re concerned with the right temperature and nutrition for a newborn baby. So all of that knowledge about what a young baby needs to thrive transfers over into what any young animal needs to thrive; warmth, nutrition, the care of its mother.” She said you also learn to appreciate the value of life.
Story and Photo by Brenda Brinkley
