Dr. Maria Franco Fuenmayor, a neonatologist, and Rachel Mathers, a NICU transport nurse, share a unique calling at The University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) that's rooted in urgency, precision, and deep compassion. They love their work because every fragile life they touch carries the possibility of a future that began in uncertainty. For the physician, it’s the challenge of making critical decisions in the very first moments of a baby’s life; for the transport nurse, it’s the resolve to bring stability and hope across miles when seconds count.
Together, they thrive in a space where science meets humanity and where the smallest victories are milestones. It’s not just a job, it’s a life passion that demands resilience, trust, and heart. They have witnessed the strength of impossibly tiny patients and the gratitude of families in their most vulnerable moments, and they know they couldn’t imagine doing anything else.
“I believe I was called to be a NICU nurse. There was never any question for me,” said Mathers. “Babies are the strongest and most resilient humans on the planet, despite being the tiniest and most vulnerable. I admire babies. I have a strong faith and I believe in callings, and I believe God called me to be a NICU nurse.”
Mathers remembers asking her mother before entering college if there was a nursing specialty in which she could focus only on babies.
“She told me that NICU nursing would be the place, and I said that’s what I wanted to do,” Mathers said. “I got into nursing school, but I thought there was no way I could get into NICU nursing. It’s super competitive, and I tried to convince myself I’d be happy doing some other kind of nursing, but when I got to the NICU, I knew this was where I was meant to be.”
She’d been paired with a transport nurse as a preceptor on the last clinical day of her third semester. Whenever the transport nurse went to a delivery, Mathers went too. They resuscitated babies, and they put peripherally inserted central catheter (PICC) lines into babies.
“I was front and center with her for those things,” she said.
After that last day, she and the other nurse left the NICU together.
“I looked at her and asked, ‘How do I become like you when I grow up?’ I knew I wanted to a NICU nurse, but that’s when I knew I wanted to be a NICU transport nurse,” she said. “I was her shadow then, but I work with that nurse now,” Mathers said.
Now, in her eighth year as a NICU nurse and her third year as a NICU transport nurse, she describes each member of the transport team as “everyone’s person.”
“We are a resource for the bedside nurse, and an ally for the nurse practitioner on the unit,” she said. “We help teach residents and work with fellows and the attending doctor. We can attend deliveries, resuscitate babies at the stand or the warmer when they are born, we intubate, put in sterile lines, umbilical catheters, and assist with codes on the unit.”
She added that the transport team acts as a liaison between the nursing staff and the providers, and they do the in-house transports.
“So, if the baby needs to go to the operating room, have a radiology procedure, or any other procedure, we do those transports,” she explained. “We also take babies from our hospital to other hospitals to receive more specialized care than what we have, such as dialysis or certain heart surgeries, and we pick up babies via ambulance from other hospitals. We are everyone’s person. We are a Swiss Army knife!”
Mathers said she gets great satisfaction from attending deliveries, whether uneventful or something unexpected happens. Most importantly, she relies on her co-workers to get through each day.
“I have really strong relationships with the people I work with,” she said. “The days are busy, but we support each other. And one of the things I like most about my job is when a baby comes to the NICU, and the dad is too scared to hold his baby’s hand — and then I start to watch the transformation to discharge. In the end, a confident dad and mom take their baby home from the NICU. I love that part.”
But although some days could be uneventful, unfortunately, there are days that do not end with a healthy baby going home with mom and dad.
Mathers said everyone has hard days, and it’s on those days that she leans on her relationships with the doctors and other team members to push through.
“We are all there for each other on those days. We work extremely hard and we love these babies, but we also lean on and love each other, which helps us all come back to work the next day,” she said. “I have struggled with grief, but it’s through the support of my co-workers and faculty that I’ve been able to keep going.”
Dr. Maria Franco Fuenmayor, assistant professor of pediatrics in the Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine at UTMB, said that some babies are extremely fragile and so tiny, they can fit in the palm of her hand.
“We take care of the most fragile babies, even those who are extremely premature and came at 23 weeks’ gestation,” Franco Fuenmayor said. “They might have congenital anomalies, respiratory distress after birth, or other life-limiting or life-threatening conditions. Some require extra corporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).”
Those parents, Franco Fuenmayor said, are sitting between joy and heartbreak.
“Their baby is here, but they recognize the baby is very sick, and we are offering intervention that could be successful, but it’s not guaranteed,” she said. “One of the beautiful things about neonatology is that it’s a team effort. The neonatologist is the leader, but there’s so much support from nurses, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, trainees, occupational therapists, the chaplain, and others. There’s a wide array of help to guide families through the unknown — it’s truly family-centered care."
This family-centered care aspect is why Franco Fuenmayor feels so passionate about neonatology. “It’s totally holistic; we care for the baby, who is such a resilient fighter, and it’s our privilege to care for the rest of the family, too,” she said. “Caring for people at their most vulnerable, seeing them through it, and then watching them go home impacts you in a very special way.”
Treating babies in the NICU at UTMB is Franco Fuenmayor’s life’s passion, and she feels privileged to do a job she loves so much. She said UTMB delivers over 6,000 babies a year, and while a neonatologist will see a fraction of those in NICU, they will also ensure that the others are doing well.
“All of these families entrust me with their heart,” Franco Fuenmayor said. “One day, the baby and the family won’t need our care anymore, they just need each other. But we have formed such a bond. We get invitations to babies’ birthdays. That bond doesn’t go away.”