Odd Education on Emotion

I have spent a fair amount of time in hospitals. I have been able to learn a few things. I can work an IV pump pretty well. I can silence alarms on monitors. In the past few years the majority of my time has been spent in NICUs cuddling my babies who for some reason or another have decided to make their grand entrance early.

NICUs are a very interesting place in the hospital. It takes a very special type of person to work there. Things are tense. Babies are sick, parents are stressed and scared, sometimes things are joyful, other times things are tragic. The emotional stamina to handle the intense emotions and the stress of the job is crazy- I do not know if I would be able to handle it.

But from where I have sat cuddling my babies I have had an opportunity to learn somethings about people and the people who work in NICUs as well as hospitals in general.

Compassion. The doctors and nurses who work with the teeny babies in the NICU are some of the most compassionate individuals I have ever met. They treat their babies with love and respect- often being the caring hands and arms when their parents can't be there.

When B and I have had babies in the NICU we were fairly confident when caring for our little ones. We were not intimidated by monitors or tubes- we were just there to snuggle our little ones. The nurses and docs though have to have the skills to inspire confidence in a pretty scary situation.

I can hear the different types of alarms and know what they mean- low SpO2, apnea, Brady's. I can talk the talk about human milk fortifier (HMF), the caloric intake of the preterm infant- about the TTN so common in the NICU all of that stuff.

but the sad stuff is taboo- no one talks of the stuff that is tragic. But please know- that those of us NICU parents who have been there have seen it. Maybe even done it. Please know that you are in our thoughts. Please know that we are praying for you.