The Reality Nobody likes
Posted by Way Siong | | Posted On Monday 29 October 2007 at 8:31 pm
For the past week I've seen many happy moms with their new and cute babies. For them, every vomit, nausea, frequency, heartburn, frequent visits to the doctors and the many troubles of carrying 11kgs around are rewarded by the first cries of their baby and the first cuddles.
Today though, I was tagging along with Dr. Newton and we had to follow up on a mother who just gave birth to a baby. Unlike most of the other babies, this baby is one of the two babies on average that gave birth with a limb malformation:
The baby didn't have a left hand.
The session was quiet saddening. We can see the mother slowly coming into tears while her mother wipes them away from the side of the bed. Dr. Newton were quite empathic, slowly giving her the time she needs to digest the situation and understand what's going to happen for the baby next. She clearly explained things that needs to be done and what's the prospects are for the baby.
The thing I realised about the mother is how some guilt seems to seep into their mind. We read in books that often parents will wonder if what they do during the pregnancy caused the problem. Everyone needs to blame someone, or something for any mishaps. How did it happen? What could we have done? Questions that are difficult to answer for us.
I guess all we can do is to do our best to be understanding.
Thanks for reading :)
it's sad how every future mom (and dad) anticipates a happy healthy baby, like you always see and read about...and then, something wrong happens.
yeah, saw another kid with a hypoplastic left heart, so much time spent in hospital must be taxing..