Anchored in Hope with Dr. Jessica Daigle

This episode of Difficult Conversations features Dr. Jessica Daigle, a board-certified pediatrician, NICU and pediatric hospitalist, and founder and CEO of Mom & Me, MD, joining Dr. Anthony Orsini and Liz Poret-Christ for a conversation about what families remember most in healthcare, not perfect outcomes, but how clinicians show up in the hardest moments. Jess opens with a core theme, medicine’s discomfort with silence, uncertainty, and pain, and how the pressure to “fix” everything can unintentionally deepen trauma. The discussion repeatedly returns to the idea that there are multiple patients in the NICU experience (baby, mother, father/partner), and that compassionate presence, transparency, and patient-centered communication can change how families carry grief, fear, and uncertainty.Jess shares her personal path into NICU work, first through early fascination with neonatology, then through a personal experience, a traumatic miscarriage where she delivered her baby herself, and later a prolonged hospitalization and preterm birth of her son Liam. Those experiences reshaped her focus from “the baby only” to the whole family system, and helped inspire her work through Mom & Me, MD. She also highlights her devotional book Anchored in Hope for NICU parents, designed to support the emotional and spiritual toll alongside the medical journey. The episode closes with Jess reflecting on her first time delivering serious news as an attending, how hard it is to balance urgency, honesty, and empathy, and the lasting truth that even when outcomes are heartbreaking, families often remember and value the clinician who stayed present and helped them navigate with humanity. Please hit the subscribe button now! For More Information:Difficult Conversations Podcast The Orsini WayThe Orsini Way-LinkedInThe Orsini [email protected]’s All In The Delivery: Improving Healthcare Starting With A Single Conversation by Dr. Anthony OrsiniJess Daigle, MD FAAP LinkedInDr. Jess Daigle InstagramMom & Me MDAnchored In Hope: A NICU Parent’s Devotional: 30 Days of Strength, Peace, and Hope by Jessica Daigle, MDThe Long Dying of Baby Andrew by Robert & Peggy StinsonDifficult Conversations with Dr. Anthony Orsini Podcast- Episode 91: Not What I Had In Mind with guest Laura Diaz-Freeland