WATCH: Health First Nurse Managers Deliver Babies 12 Hours Apart at Birth Suites at Viera Hospital

From Caring for Patients to Cradling Their Daughters

WATCH: Strengthening a friendship built on years of shared leadership – Two longtime Health First colleagues, Sarah Doak and Tia Thomas, have shared years of milestones in their nursing careers — and now, motherhood is the newest chapter in their intertwined stories.

BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA — Two longtime Health First colleagues, Sarah Doak and Tia Thomas, have shared years of milestones in their nursing careers — and now, motherhood is the newest chapter in their intertwined stories.

The two nurse managers delivered their baby girls approximately 12 hours apart at Viera Hospital, where they both serve in leadership roles.

Thomas, a nurse manager for Interventional Prep and Recovery at Holmes Regional Medical Center, gave birth to Juniper July 1, weighing 7 pounds, 1 ounce and measuring 20.25 inches. The numbers matched the date — 7/01 — almost too perfectly.

Just hours later, Sarah, who manages the 5 West med-surg telemetry unit at Holmes, welcomed Sloane July 2, weighing 7 pounds, 3 ounces and measuring 20.5 inches.

The timing wasn’t planned, but it wasn’t a total surprise, either.

“Yes,” Doak said, smiling, when asked if they were in touch before going into labor. “I was set to be induced, and I knew that, and I still had a couple of weeks to go.”

In the days leading up to delivery, the two kept in regular contact.

“We both planned on having our babies here also,” Doak said. “We both planned on working right up till we had our babies.”

Sloane is Doak’s fourth child, while Juniper is Thomas’s third — and her first daughter, making her officially a girl mom.

“With our backgrounds being at Cape — that’s where we were familiar with our doctors,” Thomas explained. “I delivered my first two up at Cape, and I stuck with the doctor, even though I live a little further south in the county. But just knowing the relationship that I had with my doctor, I wanted to continue that care here at Viera Hospital.

When asked if the experience brought the two Health First leaders closer together, Thomas didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely,” she said, while Doak nodded in agreement, comforting her newborn daughter. “They’re less than 12 hours apart. They’re almost identical in size. We have mutual friends and mutual interests with work,” Thomas added.

“It’s definitely going to change our relationship a little bit,” Doak added, “and you know, we’ll have a different aspect to just outside of nursing and managing—there’s now our babies.”

“It’s been great here for me,” Doak said. “Being able to give birth and stay in the same room was super nice. A lot of the other hospitals, you give birth and move to a different room. So that was awesome and the staff has been wonderful.”

“I’ve also had a great experience,” Thomas added. “My previous two births were at Cape where I had great experiences and Viera Hospital met all my expectations. The accommodations are very nice; the rooms are nice; the room service is great and the nursing staff—the care is just as great as it was before.”

“Fortunately, our departments are far enough from each other that it’s not too—there’s not really any overlapping,” Thomas explained, when asked about planning around their maternity leaves.

The Mother/Baby Suites at Viera Hospital, which opened in Aug. 2024, made a lasting impression on both mothers.

“And when we got here, everyone was super accommodating between the physicians, the nurses and all the staff. It’s just been a great experience overall,” Thomas said.

“And I think just understanding what’s going on in our community right now—there is a huge increase in labor and delivery in the county and the resources are stretched thin,” she said. “I think everyone’s done a really great job of accommodating us and making sure that we are safe and our babies were delivered safely,” said Thomas.

“But we know there is a strain on resources,” Thomas continued. “So just being understanding—and know they’re all doing the best that they can.”

Reflecting on the timing of their deliveries, Thomas shared how meaningful it was to share the experience with a colleague and friend.

“But it’s just been kind of a different but great experience to have somebody here and going through the same thing as me,” said Thomas.

“If you had told us a year ago that we would both be here, we wouldn’t have believed you,” Doak laughed.

Though they serve in leadership at Holmes, Sarah Doak and Tia Thomas chose to deliver at Viera Hospital — where their parallel paths led to a moment neither expected but will always cherish.

Sloane and Juniper may never grasp the timing of their arrival, but one day they’ll learn how a hospital filled with caring hands came together to deliver not just babies, but a story of friendship, community, and the quiet magic that happens when caregivers become cared-for.

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