BETSY | mother | nurse
It was a wild idea at the time. After all, I was 21, not married and holding my newborn son for the first time. I was teary and hormonal and felt entirely indebted to Jeannie, the nurse who supported me through my son’s delivery. But I decided then and there that I would be a nurse someday – a nurse, like Jeannie, who would hold someone’s hand if they were scared.
Oh, the hands I have held…hands of frightened new mothers undergoing painful procedures to stop uterine hemorrhaging…hands of women struggling with the discomfort of postpartum cramping…hands of babies trying desperately to latch onto their nursing mothers.
As I make my rounds as a registered nurse on the postpartum floor, I contemplate the journey that brought me there. I wonder if I ever would have finished nursing school, had Health Careers Foundation not come to the rescue. I wonder if Jeannie truly understands the influence she had on my life. And I wonder, as I’m holding a hand during a traumatic moment, if any new mother will get any wild ideas.
