Welcome to Life

Newborn by =bnspencer on deviantART

Welcome to life. I know you're tired and unfamiliar with this world, but open your eyes and see the love that has brought you here. Sleep in the arms that embrace you, linger in childhood while you can, but grow up healthy and strong. You are full of the world's hope and potential - anything is possible! What will you choose to be? You won't remember me, despite me prodding and poking you. But I hope my thoughts are etched deep into your heart: I wish you the best on this journey called life, and I hope you are equipped with the love and the help to get through anything. Welcome again to this thing called life.

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About a month ago, I had the privilege of rotating through the newborn nursery for 2 half-days. I had the opportunity to hold and examine a baby less than 48 hours old. His mom handed him over to me (in my mind practically throwing him at me), trusting me unequivocally that I wouldn't hurt him.

He peeked at me through suspicious eyelids before returning to his tenuous sleep. Of all the people to have examined him in his brief existence, he tolerated me the best - perhaps he liked me best. It's something special to hold a baby and not have him instantly cry at you to get away, but rather to tolerate you in a way that almost says, "I don't like what you're doing, but you're okay so I'll let you."

All the meanwhile the parents watch your every move, searching you for the slightest hint that their baby is not all right. The breath in the air hangs suspended as you move methodically through each motion designed to detect the slightest defect, the slightest indication that something may be wrong. And when you finish and everything is okay, the breath falls almost as a sigh of relief.

I read an article, A medical student experience in the newborn nursery, and it struck me just how true his account and his words resonated with me. I'm not sure I can even adequately express in words what it is like to have a family accept and trust you, a total stranger, to hold their newborn child. It's almost like holding unadulterated hope and potential in your arms - so fragile yet resilient.

My interaction with this child is but a flicker of time in his life ahead, mere minutes out of the potential years he could/will have on this earth. But all the same, it was truly an honor and a privilege to welcome him to life, in my own way.