This Beautiful Post About the Things Labor and Delivery Nurses Endure at Work Is a Must-Read
As parents or parents-to-be, it's easy to focus on our own delivery experiences and forget about the feelings of the people at the hospital who are there to keep us and our babies safe and healthy. Namely, the nurses. I for one am certainly guilty of prioritizing my own emotional journey while delivering and never stopping once to think about what a labor and delivery nurse might experience on a given shift.
Laura McIntyre, a friend of a labor and delivery nurse, knows how easy it is to overlook the tireless efforts nurses put forth and penned a beautiful post acknowledging how hard her friend works and some of the difficult stuff she has to see. She wrote:
she's gonna kill me for this pic, but can we just give it up for nurses for a minute?
caty just wrapped up her fourth shift in a row. that's around 53+ hours in four days. that's not including the 1.5 hours she's in the car each day. she usually doesn't get a chance to eat lunch or even drink much water. (& she has to dress like a blueberry.. i mean, come on). she is so good at what she does that she often forgets how to take care of herself while she's taking care of her patients.
this pic is from a night back in july where she came to my house after a particularly hard day. she delivered a stillborn. have you guys ever really thought about what a labor & delivery nurse sees? they see great joy in smooth deliveries & healthy moms & babies. they see panic & anxiety when a new mom is scared. they see fear when a stat c-section is called. they see peace when the mom has support from her family — bc not all new moms do. they see teenagers giving birth. they see an addicted mom give birth to a baby who is withdrawing. they see cps come. they see funeral homes come. did you know that they have to make arrangements for the funeral home to come pick up the baby? i didn't either.
caty (& all other nurses) — you are SPECIAL. you bless your patients & their families more than you will ever know. thank you for all that you do.
This is a great reminder that we should all take a moment to appreciate and thank the efforts of the nurses who keep us safe.