They’re the ones who hold everything together.
It can be easy to take the work that maternity nurses do for granted.
Once we enter the hospital they’re there, going from patient to patient, checking on babies and running tests.
Because they don’t show how much stress they are under to us we often forget just how exhausted and stressed they really are underneath it all.
One woman decided to honour all delivery nurses and midwives with a beautiful post after seeing her friend breakdown after a heartbreaking shift.
Laura McIntyre wrote about how her friend Caty who works as a nurse came to visit her after working a 53 hour shift.
Ms McIntyre said that this shift had been extremely difficult and upsetting for Caty as during it she had to deliver a stillborn baby.
“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.”
It really brings home the reality of how much stress and heartbreak most nurses see on a daily basis and how strong they are to put it all aside and continue to take care of their patients.
I have several friends and family members who are nurses and I know I would not have the stamina to do the work that they do and I can’t imagine what all of us mums would do without them.
