Labor of love: Mother-daughter nursing duo work side by side

HOUSTON, Texas -- Nursing is a passion. A passion that runs deep in a Houston family.

Jeannie Wooden and her daughter, Jolie Martin, both work at Memorial Hermann in the Women's Health Labor and Delivery department.

Mom is a 26-year nursing veteran, and Jolie is celebrating her one-year nursing anniversary this month.

"When your children are born, you don't know what they're going to want to do when they grow up. She wants to follow in my footsteps, which makes me proud," Jeannie said with a smile.

Jolie loves her career choice, "I really love nursing as a career, it's really human-based. You care about a human as a whole rather than just a medical problem."

Jolie decided at a young age that she wanted to become a nurse. It was an example set by her mother and by her mother's nursing friends that made a big impression, "Those are the women who raised me into the woman that I am. A very strong and independent woman."

At the hospital, it's common for Jolie to deliver babies in the same room where she was born and sometimes shares that with mothers-to-be, "If they seem like they would like to hear that, I tell them I was born in this room, it has good vibes."

National Nurses Week is celebrated annually from May 6 to May 12. A special time for both mother and daughter.

"Sometimes it's a selfless career, but you do have a lot of pride and honor in forgiving that compassion. And you only have to work three days a week and you get to wear really comfortable clothes to work," Jennie says with a big smile.