Nurses: The Angels and Herpes of the Maternity Ward
The most painful, challenging, and exhausting fears any woman could ever endure is giving birth to a child. It can be also called as the most powerful, miraculous, and beautiful events in the human experience.
Many new mothers might struggle to feel beautiful in the aftermath of their delivery while there is undeniable beauty in the giving of new life. Everyone is weak and drained from hours of labor. With the most important pushes of their lives, their bodies are stretched, torn, and sore. The every incredible woman may have never been in a more vulnerable position covered with sweat, often bleary with tears, physically and mentally spent. Then their heroes come in.
Even though the doctor was essential in delivering the baby, the nurses are essential to everything that comes after. Once the doctors leaves, the nurses make sure the mother is okay and has everything she needs. Mothers can be so exhausted mentally that they might not even know what she needs after the battle of childbirth. The nurses have been the champions of countless women. They are not daunted by the after-mess of the birth and with embarrassing condition of the mother. Nurses can save the day from knowing just the right thing to say, being the one to snap the first family photo, or helping mom make the long first trek to the bathroom.
Jill Krause of the blog Baby Rabies posted on facebook about her own experiences with the delivery nurses in her life. She said, “I’ll never forget the faces of the nurses who followed me into the bathroom after delivering each baby. That moment, when I was so vulnerable, so tired, scared, shaky, my swollen belly deflating and my modesty long gone. They treated me with such kindness and dignity.”
There were more than 40,000 shares and over 4,000 comments agreeing with her words. It proved that she isn’t the only woman who would like to thank her nurses for their heroics and tenderness.
My mother once told me about my own delivery. As the ultrasound had picked up an abnormality in my heart beat, her labor was rushed. The doctor commanded my mother to lay on her back while he prepped for the birth, frightening her with his urgent concern for my life. The nurse attending her tried to comfort her, and suggested that she try lying on her side to see what happened. The nurse helped my mom turn, and immediately my heart beat became strong and steady. Once the doctor returned, he ordered my mom onto her back once again; an action which they later realized tightened the umbilical cord around my neck in the womb. While he prepared further, the nurse again urged my mom to turn onto her side, freeing me from the constricting cord and again outraging the doctor. The nurse quickly explained her discovery to him, pointing out my regulated heart beat. The delivery proceeded smoothly and without incident because of her vigilance and dedication to my mother’s and my well being.
A nurse is a guardian angel to every mother in the delivery room, whether at the bedside during birth or the toilet-side after or anything.