Tuesday 23 March 2010

There's One Born Every Minute


Tonight myself, and a lot of people like me have been watching this. Every week this program follows two women in labour, giving birth to their babies. Tonight, was different.

The babies had already been born, but should have still be in the safety and comfort of the womb. Instead, these babies were in a neo natal unit. One of the neonatal nurses said it best "its a whole other world behind these doors".

In the unit they showed parents on either side of an incubator changing a nappy. It brought back such happy memories, that ten minutes of normality, of changing your baby, touching your baby, doing something positive.

It's so hard, if you've had a "normal" birth experience (and I don't believe any birth is "normal" its a unique life experience and an individual one for all parents, but I think my reader, you know what I mean) to relate to life behind those doors. To the rigidity of ward life, to the restrictions on cuddles, on bringing things in to the unit (we weren't even allowed to leave a little teddy in the incubator)

But what I found personally difficult for me, is that I no longer recognise Joseph as that baby. I can't relate to that little person (one of the mums on the unit in the program said her baby looked like an alien - which is how I felt too), to the frail, tiny being who some days fought for his life.

Which, I suppose, is progress, that I am living in the now, with a strong, happy, bouncy boy.

Joseph is a success story, he is the reason neonatal units exist, and, to be political for just a wee moment, should be adequately funded, so that more mums like me, can have their success stories at home, tucked in their cots, sucking their blankets, where they belong.

And a special mention to my mum friends here for holding my hand tonight!

2 comments:

  1. Against my better judgement I tried to watch it too! I didn't make it all the way through. The first little one's story was far too similar to my own daughter's to make for comfortable viewing.

    It IS a whole other world. x

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  2. I watched that program, absolutely oblivious to the fact that I would be one of those parents watching my son Joshua through the glass of his incubator. It somewhat prepared myself and my family for what to expect. x

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