This is a brief letter that I, Tracy, wrote on my old blog when I was a solo doula several years ago. “To All the nurses I’ve loved Before”. Happy Nurse Appreciation week! We absolutely adore our local Labor and Delivery nurses!
I think there was, for a while at least, a misconception that nurses weren’t on “our” side. (“Our side” being doulas, birthing parents, the natural birth community, VBACing parents, etc.) At the same time, possibly, a misconception that doulas weren’t on theirs. That our jobs were somehow in opposition to each other.
But, guys and gals. Nothing is further from the truth I could NOT possibly love our nurses any more than I do. (Thankfully, several years later, I think that myth is FINALLY fading away in our local community.)
Over the years, I’ve gotten to know some of the most talented, overwhelmingly smart, caring people who are in this profession, specifically on the L&D units. I have nurses who I trust to not only share my dear clients with but to share some of my joy, trauma, and my grief and hopefully, they can say the same.
Nurses work hard to keep birthing families safe and healthy, but at the same time have a tremendous desire for their patients to have the birth they envisioned. They think through every scenario, help put patients in wedges to get the baby in position, start IV’s with a patient on the toilet, get birth or peanut balls just right, stack blankets and pillows, massage backs, reposition monitors 1,000 times. I have seen a break in their own hearts when my clients, their patients, have to have a drastic change in plans.
They work tirelessly, hardly pausing to take care of themselves. Charting, taking care of patients, at times catching babies, consoling grieving families, then going home, exhausted, to take care of their own families, dealing with their own grief, their own losses.
This is all to say this: To all the nurses I’ve loved before- I appreciate you, my nurse friends, even if we’ve never met. You rock! You are such an alley, a vault of information, protector, and confidant. You are such a strong pillar for your patients. You are caring and loving. You are my friend!
