Listening to my dear friend, Laura’s, baby while she labors in the tub.
Newsletter June 2026 Volume 200
Hello there,
Hope you are doing well.
This week I realized I don’t write or talk much about my job as a labor and delivery nurse, except with my coworkers, because there is such a valid concern about violating anyone’s privacy.
It feels like having a huge part of my life be behind a brick wall.
Having a baby, being sick, having a health condition are so private and I never want anyone to feel like that is fodder or material for entertainment.
But it is a lot of what I do in the world. And it feels strange that I don’t mention it because it is so much of my day to day experience.
There’s so much I could say. I’ve even written a book about becoming a nurse and am in the very slow process of writing a book about doing this job, this calling, this career for almost 30 years.
Being with women as they birth their babies while being surrounded by other women (and some men.)
Some of the gems I work with. I didn’t have pics of everyone, but here is Jaime, Laura, me and Ariel.
Lately I noticed that while I am so grateful for my job for many reasons, one that has really been ringing true is that it is protective of my soul in this time of political and cultural insanity.
It seems like suddenly many people feel like human life is not precious and are speaking and acting with such dangerous willful cruelty.
What a blessing – what a gift – to spend every day at work knowing and acting with the shared awareness that each human being and how they come into the world, whoever they, are is a profoundly sacred and important event.
I think most humans are all filled with love that we instinctively want to share, and for whatever reason that urge gets trimmed and frozen in many of us over the years, but one of the marvelous things about being a nurse is that you can spread your love every day to your patients.
More superstars! Jaime, Me, Wendy then Liza and Katrine up front. xoxox
I’m lucky enough to work in a place where the other nurses, midwives, clerks, pediatricians, OBs, lab, our management and housekeeping are doing their absolute best for their patients and for each other.(Almost always. I mean, we are human!)
It is such a joy to know without a doubt that we will do everything we possibly can to protect, help and guide these women to a safe birth while listening to them and what they need.
Birth is a very dramatic event. For many it is traumatic, overwhelming, and completely shocking. In some ways it feels impossible to prepare for birth. I had seen hundreds of births before I had my first child and I still was unprepared.
It is alot!
There is so much awe in witnessing and supporting a new life coming into the world THROUGH another person. It is still wild to me after thousands of births!
More marvelous people! Suzanne, Wendy and me xoxox
As the world around me feels more cruel and unintelligible. I think it is great medicine to pour love into someone else who needs it. I suppose that is why volunteering to help others is such a mood booster and suggested so often as a balm for difficult times.
We want to love each other desperately.
Truly, mostly, we are wired to love and care for each other.
It is such a privilege to be part of one of the most intimate, traumatic, and sometimes tragic things a human being can go through. I feel so lucky that the people around me understand the gravity of that honor.
After a child is born and the baby is crying on mom’s chest, like a damp pink fish just pulled from the water by its own birthing – the parent – in shock – usually says some sort of thank you to us – those that have been with her through this momentous event – what we say back with all honesty – is a heartfelt “It is a privilege. It is such a privilege to be here.”
What a blessing. Don’t get me wrong. It is really, really really hard not only to birth but to be a nurse.
Sometimes staffing is short, government cuts are hitting hard, upper management is gutting out supports, patients and families are overwhelmed and sometimes terrible things happen and those events stay with you, like a shark just under the water, reminding you how dangerous bringing life into the world can be.
It is certainly not for the faint of heart.
None of it.
Birthing.
Parenting
or Being a nurse!
This world is so challenging; I am grateful for the gift of working with a group of kind and deeply caring professionals, and getting to support people during one of the most challenging, terrifying, and beautiful moments of their life.
I wanted to post pics from this important part of my life with some of the people who I love and depend on and laugh with as we do such important work. I am so grateful for the team of women who stand beside me each day with their hearts wide open and their brilliant brains working hard to give our patients the best care possible.
It is hard on my back, but I think it is good for my soul, especially in these times, to feel surrounded by people who care and to be able to do something impactful and sacred as well as totally mundane.
So in some ways my point today is to find a way you can share your love. Of course we are all out there loving our families, our neighbors and the people in our lives but there is something freeing about giving love that has no expectation of being returned and no messy family historical webs. It’s just an offering and releasing attachment to the result makes it nourishing in a different way.
And if loving people directly is hard for you then you can do it in whatever way you can; give money, write letters, write legislation, teach yoga, volunteer at the food bank, be nice to animals, garden and talk to your plants!
Anything that lets that feeling of love move from you into someone/thing else.
It is a medicine, a balm, a shield against despair.
To be needed.
To do your best.
To lift up others.
In whatever way you can no matter how small.
More delightful brilliant people – Beth and Kim posing with me!
And to round out my attempt to share some of the magic of my work – I’m including some poems I’ve written. Poetry almost captures the intimacy and the joy of doing what we do better than prose.
Tub Birth
The sweaty woman
silently rolls over to her back
in the big white tub.
The water between
her legs suddenly swirling
from her burst amniotic balloon,
a clear then scarlet spout
of movement.
We all come in closer, smiling,
to hold her wet limbs up
as her baby’s head,
a dark nut, appears
under the pink clouds.
So grateful for Liz, Cindy, Cheri, and Katrine!
Watching the baby sleep
“Last time, with Maddie, I didn’t sleep
for three weeks straight, so I probably
won’t sleep tonight.” she told me
when we said goodnight.
The midwife, on the edge of the other bed, visiting,
got worried. “Were you OK? I mean,
that seems like a set-up for postpartum depression.”
The mother (19 with her second baby
in 13 months; the first one asleep in the
playpen beside her hospital bed,
the other in her arms) was
gorgeous and plump, with pile of curly hair
on top of her head
still unwashed from her delivery
just a few hours before,
somehow made her look regal and medieval.
Smiling, huge and open, she laughed,
“Oh no, I was too happy to sleep. I just
wanted to watch her all the time, and then,
she started to laugh in her sleep. I mean,
I couldn’t miss that!”
We nodded and turned down the lights
leaving her glowing, like Mary
in those Christmas cards where
she’s holding the newborn Jesus
surrounded by the warm breath of farm animals.
Walking down the hall, I let her make an impression
like a hand imprinting in clay. Sometimes,
a sleepless mother feels like the luckiest person in the world,
just watching her pink baby sleep.
May love flow through you and to you in these challenging times.
xoxo
Katherine
