Birth injuries on babies refer to those that cause harm to the baby, or anytime during the birth process. While these are undesirable circumstances, unfortunately, they could happen.
Some birth injuries are minor and are easy to manage while some leave a more serious and permanent impact on the lives of others. When they happen, babies or mothers with injuries will also require a deeper level of care to improve the chances of recovery or a better quality of life.
In that regard, the most significant bulk of the responsibility falls upon the nurses and health workers that are caring for the baby and the mother. It’s an extra challenge for them to ensure that both the mom and the baby are well taken cared of.
Here are some of the impacts that birth injuries have on the nurses that are caring for these patients:
1. Unimaginable Level Of Stress
There’s no denying the fact that caring for a baby with a birth injury will be very stressful, not just on the parents but even on the nurses. For some of these babies, their lives are hanging by a thread.
So, the nurses are always on their toes to ensure that the babies stay safe. It’s an added level of stress, on top of all the pressures that these nurses experience. Not to mention that many of these babies end up in the NICU, which in itself is already a lot of work for the nurses.
For these babies, sometimes, the mother even gets to go home before the baby can. So, all the pressure is on the nurse to ensure the parents that their baby is in good hands. In this situation, in fact, they are. Nurses have enough training to handle even the worst of any possible birth injury that a baby may experience.
2. Immense Level Of Relief And Satisfaction
On the opposite of the first, after a stressful situation is always the rainbow after the rain. Especially for babies with birth injuries that are minor and not permanent, once the baby has recovered, it’s expected that the nurses will also feel that immense sigh of relief and satisfaction. They’re relieved of all the pressure that they feel, that should anything bad happen while the baby is in their care, the parents might put them to blame.
Nurses do love it when their patients can recover well. So, if you’re a parent with a child under a nurse’s care, don’t forget to show a little love and appreciation for all the sacrifices the healthcare providers went through to help your little one recover.
3. Lack Of Sleep Or Rest Time
Nurses that are caring for patients with birth injuries know that every little move is a matter of life or death. Then, the schedule of these babies are very tight. Basically everything about these babies are in the hands of the nurses, from feeding to medicine schedules. As an example, browse through this birth injury caregiver guide for you to have an overall idea.
So, for these nurses, they’re busier than usual. While taking care of babies with birth injuries, these nurses expect to go through long hours of work, or shorter rest times.
But, for the nurses, they’re willing to go through all these, with the end goal of making their patient recover better. For those babies with permanent birth injuries, the nurses also go through all this sacrifice to give the babies all the care that they need, while they aren’t yet at home.
4. Sense Of Meaning And Importance In Their Lives
Yes, nurses that are taking care of patients with birth injuries are under a lot of pressure and stress. But, while they’re at it, they’re also reminded of their purpose in life.
When the going gets tough, they remember that to this little child, who isn’t even their own, they mean the world to them. To the parents of the child, the nurse is their life-provider. So, they remember their purpose more than just to earn an income from working as a nurse.
As they care for these young, injured newly-born babies, they develop that sense of importance that’s more than enough to drive their stress and anxiety away. Somehow, there’s that feeling that without them, these babies may not recover well.
The next time they doubt their worth, by merely caring for an injured newborn, they do acknowledge that they’ve got meaning and a significant contribution to the life of a family.
Conclusion
Birth injuries are immediately evident right after birth. Generally, these injuries result because of a problem or difficulty during the delivery and labor process. While the affected mother and baby are still in the hospital, it’s the responsibility of the health employees to ensure that the baby and the mother are well taken care of. These impacts, as enumerated above, only goes to show that birth injuries are never to be taken lightly. But, with the right treatment plan, recovery, and a better quality of life is ensured.
Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.
