The Delehoy family’s hometown hospital is much more than the place where they have welcomed each new baby for nearly a century.
It’s where their stories begin.
Over four generations, these northern Colorado homesteaders have welcomed 12 babies at the Fort Collins hospital, which is now called UCHealth Poudre Valley Hospital and is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.
Parents who were born at the hospital decades ago welcomed their own babies there, then eventually celebrated the births of their grandbabies.
“It’s very meaningful to bring my children into the world in the same place as my great-grandparents, grandparents and parents,” said Kirsten Martin, who gave birth to both her children at Poudre Valley Hospital.
The family’s close ties to the hospital began in 1939 when Marie and Victor Delehoy welcomed their first child, Barbara, at what was then called Larimer County Hospital. Eighty-six years later, the newest Delehoy descendant made her debut in the world at the hospital when Marie and Victor Delehoy’s great-granddaughter, Kirsten, delivered her daughter, Adeline Hunter Martin, on May 8, 2025.
“The fact that Poudre Valley Hospital has been a place that has cared for my family for nearly a century shows the trust we’ve built over time,” Kirsten said. “Having quality care that is close to home is such an important part of our community.”
Kirsten’s sister, Kelsey Schnoor, also delivered her two children at Poudre Valley Hospital. And their mother, Karen Follett, considers it a privilege to have welcomed her grandchildren in the same place where she and her husband welcomed all three of their daughters, and where she also worked as a nurse.
“It meant so much to have my mom with me at the birth of my children, in the same place where she once had me,” Kelsey said. “That connection across generations made the experience even more meaningful.”
Kirsten agreed. “It’s rare to have that kind of continuity, and I’m proud to have such deep roots in Fort Collins,” she said. “It’s not just a hospital. It’s part of my family’s history.”
Poudre Valley Hospital: A century of supporting families
The Delehoy family’s roots in northern Colorado date back to the early 1900s. Marie was born in 1915 to Ray and Edith Young, who homesteaded in the early 1900s in Laporte, Colorado. The county hospital in nearby Fort Collins wasn’t built until 1925, but a Fort Collins doctor helped deliver Marie. As fruit and vegetable farmers, the Youngs set up shop on their homestead, which is the present-day site of the Old Feed Store, across from the Cache La Poudre School. Marie had four siblings.
Marie and Victor Delehoy met at school and married in 1936. Victor’s parents, Fred and Pearl Delehoy, homesteaded and farmed property between the nearby town of Bellvue and Stout, a quarry town that is now mostly submerged under Horsetooth Reservoir. Marie and Victory lived on the Young’s Laporte property in a “shack” that still stands today, according to a 2014 article by history blogger Meg Dunn.
The couple later purchased property near Bellvue, where Barbara and Gary, along with Arlen and Keith, were raised. All four children were born at Poudre Valley Hospital.
Gary Delehoy still has the hospital bill that his father received after his birth on April 30, 1947. It was for $58.40. Marie spent about a week in the hospital, at $6 per day. (There was also a separate $9 room/care charge.) Her delivery room cost her $10, while “dressings and drugs” cost $6.50. And she got a “misc” discount of $3.10.
Poudre Valley Hospital: A family affair
Barbara married Hunter Follett in 1959. Hunter would go on to create the soil and water labs at Colorado State University, where the Hunter Follett Award is still given to a graduate student each year.
Barbara delivered Kevin at Poudre Valley Hospital in 1961.
“When I was born, my mom was quite sick,” Kevin said. “I was full-term, but only 3 pounds, 9 ounces. Mom had preeclampsia, and she almost died. I was in the hospital’s NICU (neonatal intensive care unit) for about a month. … They had the best care there, even during that time.”
Barbara and Hunter were only allowed to see Kevin through the NICU nursery window.
“Mom always told me that all the nurses loved to hold me, so I became extremely spoiled and wanted to be held all the time when I got home. Maybe that’s why I married a nurse,” Kevin said.
Continuing with great hospital care
In 1983, Kevin married Karen Kresie, who had gotten her nursing degree that same year from Washburn School of Nursing in Topeka, Kansas. The couple moved to Fort Collins to start their family, and Karen got a job at Poudre Valley Hospital. All three of their children, Katie, Kelsey and Kirsten, were born at Poudre Valley Hospital.
During the birth of their first child in 1987, Karen had to have an emergency C-section. Katie — like her father 26 years earlier — spent time in the NICU.
Being able to respond so quickly to the emergency situation saved the lives of his newborn and his wife, Kevin claimed.
“I wouldn’t encourage anyone to go anywhere else to have their baby,” he said of Poudre Valley Hospital.
The hospital now has a Level III NICU that provides services to babies born prematurely (as young as 28 weeks and as little as 2 pounds) or who have special health concerns. It’s the only NICU of its kind between the Denver area and Billings, Montana.
A shift in birthing and family care
Several decades before becoming a high-level NICU in 2006, the hospital moved to “family-centered care,” a model that supports skin-to-skin contact after birth and babies stay in the mothers’ rooms instead of a nursery, explained Julie Brain, nurse manager of the Women’s Care unit at Poudre Valley Hospital, who started working at the hospital around the same time as Karen.
Both nurses also worked there during the development of the hospital’s lactation support program in 1999, which provides resources and one-on-one guidance for mothers of infants.
“It was originally designed to allow parents to go home, spend a night or two, work on breastfeeding, then return free of charge, where we could do maternal and baby assessments, and then help with breast or formula training,” said Brain, who helped with its inception.
“We’ve made a big commitment in this organization to put the money behind the evidence,” she said.
The hospital’s support of new mothers inspired Karen to get her certified lactation counselor certification. She continued caring for new mothers until she retired in 2020, but not before she cared for her daughter, Kelsey, twice during her stay in the unit.
A fourth generation born at Poudre Valley Hospital
Kelsey’s first child, Oliver David Follett Schnoor, was born May 31, 2017, at Poudre Valley Hospital with Kelsey’s husband, Eli Schnoor, and Karen by her side.
Kelsey’s second child, Zoë Follett Schnoor, was born at Poudre Valley Hospital on June 15, 2020. Visitor restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic left Kelsey feeling a bit saddened, as she had expected to have only her husband there to support her. But the day before her delivery, visitor restrictions lifted to allow for two people in the birthing room. Karen was able to join her daughter, making it in time for the last “big push.”
Kelsey praises Eli for his support during that experience, saying the nurses thought of him as “the swaddle king.”
Also making Kelsey’s hospital stay “really special” was that her good friend Jessica MacNaughton was the nurse in charge of Zoë’s immediate care after she was born.
And as Kelsey and Zoë Schnoor left the hospital for their first trip home together, four generations of Poudre Valley Hospital-born family members were waiting outside, including her son, Oliver, two sisters, Kirstin and Katie Mackey, her father, Kevin, and her great uncle, Gary, and his wife, Caryn.
A family tradition of sorts
A few years later, it was Kirsten’s turn to follow what had become a family tradition of sorts. On March 21, 2023, she delivered Matthew Grant Martin at Poudre Valley Hospital. Her husband, Warren Martin, along with proud grandparents Karen and Kevin, were there to greet the 11th Delehoy descendant.
“It’s funny how much time I’ve spent in the women’s care unit,” Kirsten said.
Kelsey and Kirsten remember visiting their mom at work when they were younger, enjoying dinners and holidays together in the cafeteria, and meeting their mother’s colleagues during visits.
On May 8, 2025, Kirsten returned to Poudre Valley Hospital to welcome daughter Adeline into the world. When Kirsten arrived for her scheduled C-section, she was greeted with the hospital’s newest renovations: a grand new hospital main entrance and a new birthing center, both completed in 2024.
“Poudre Valley Hospital is really a lot different than it used to be,” she said. “We got a room at the end of the women’s care unit that was really big — we called it the penthouse.”
And the staff was just as amazing as Kirsten had remembered from all her visits there.
“All the nurses were fantastic,” she said. “Of course, my mom called to see which of her friends were working. Our main nurses were Agnie and Jessica, and Susan was our overnight nurse.
“It feels like your grandmother is taking care of you because they are so kind and helpful. It made me appreciate what my mom did for so many years.”
Great care at a hospital that has been part of their family’s history for nearly a century
For the Delehoy descendants, Poudre Valley Hospital is like a second home, and they said they’re grateful to have such a hospital in their local community.
“I love this hospital,” Kelsey said. “There are so many good memories here, especially delivering my son and daughter. All the nurses are amazing. They do such a good job balancing care and quality. It’s more than just a hospital — it is familiar.”
Kirsten said she would love it if one day, she too got to watch her grandchildren be born at Poudre Valley Hospital.
“It would be a gift to see their stories begin in the same place where so many of my family’s stories also started,” she said.