Letters from the NICU. Article by Rachel Brougham for Minnesota Parent.
I remember well the space in the hospital where my son was born. It was a cozy room down a back hallway. It had a small sofa, a recliner and a television most new mothers are lucky enough to never really need.
In the room, there were pamphlets about caring for premature babies and the benefits of breastfeeding.
There was literature about vaccinations — and, finally, a poster on the wall of a new mother, smiling as she held her new baby.
I remember thinking the poster was cruel. Sure, all my friends who were mothers had that same big smile as they carried their babies out of the hospital for the first time.
I was expecting to be that mother, too. But I wasn’t.
