When expecting mothers arrive at the birth center at UCHealth Greeley Hospital (GH), Maria Angelizza “Angel” Armamento presents a calming, comforting environment and encourages the patients to actively participate in their care.
“My goal is help them feel at ease,” said Armamento, BSN, C-EFM, birth center nurse. “Because I know there is so much surge of emotions from the time a mother finds out they are pregnant to this big, life-changing moment of being here to birth their child.”
She offers patients a personal touch of aromatherapy and invites them to take in the moment. Armamento championed the development of the Empower/Coping Cart, designed to better support physiologic birth and increase RN confidence in caring for these patients. This project provided tools and resources that helped normalize movement, positioning and non-pharmacologic pain management during labor.
Extending these practices to colleagues, Armamento has played a key role in quality improvement efforts that strengthen person-centered care. GH birth center nurses offer a labor coping menu designed to create a calming environment, including dimming the lights, adjusting room temperature and providing comfort items such as a personal fan. Additional options such as a galaxy projector, flameless candles and a speaker for playing a patient’s favorite music, help personalize the space and promote relaxation during labor.
“It feels like a spa moment,” Armamento said. “This birth experience is going to be the most memorable moment of this mom’s life. I want to shift the emotions — the mindset — they have when they’re having a baby.”
The Empower/Coping Cart is loaded with comfort tools, educational visuals and sensory support objects to help patients with pain and anxiety while empowering families to play an active role. The cart began as Armamento’s idea for patient-centered care, which led to a grant to purchase the items, followed by completion of her UEXCEL Level III project — which helped extend the cart’s use to nursing colleagues.
Items such as stress balls and wooden combs can be offered to the mother to grip onto and distract from contractions.
“If we can help them cope with their pain using these supportive tools, I think that is a plus, and it helps progress their labor,” Armamento said.
In addition to holistic options, the labor pain coping menu also includes pain management medications such as nitrous oxide, IV medication and an epidural. The patient collaborates with their care team to determine the approach that will work best for them.
Family members are also welcome to items in the cart. A deck of illustrated cards offers 50 ways to support comfort techniques for labor. These can give the dads something to focus on—and learn how to participate—while they wait. There are also several massage tools.
Armamento said it was important that her UEXCEL project support nurses, and the data showed that it instilled more confidence and provided more options for her colleagues.
“A patient can have all these tools, but it starts with the nurse at the bedside — I want them to feel empowered, too,” she said. “We learned the medical side, but we didn’t learn all these things.”
Ultimately, the intent is to make the birth a meaningful, positive experience, with sensory care that goes well beyond numbing the pain.
“Their birth experience, that very moment: It’s such a privilege to witness that miracle of life, that first breath. That uncertainty and anxious wait, now in their arms,” Armamento said. “My hope and goal is to have every family feel supported, empowered and look back at that biggest life event with joy and love.”
In May, Armamento received the 2026 Greeley Hospital Direct Care Nurse Award for quality. The award recognizes nursing excellence in connection to GH’s designation as an American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Pathway to Excellence hospital.
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