Since some procedures are unavoidable, many of us learn to do them in a way that is as "least traumatic" as possible. I like working with intensive care/high dependency babies in part because their experience is everything to me. I provide the baby with as much positive touch that is "for the baby" as possible (not just procedural touch), by advocating for lots of parental holding, as well as using my hands to respond to the baby's cues while doing routine care giving. This is a learned skill, and it's not necessarily easy to come by. I also don't want to turn unpleasant procedures over to someone else, because in typical control freak ICU nurse fashion, I know I can do what needs to be done either in the least painful way possible, or even in a way that is comfortable and allows the baby to remain quietly alert (my preference for the baby). Most of us who get good at necessary procedures do so because we are invested in the baby's experience. I've done my job well when I am doing something *for* and *with* a baby instead of doing something *to* a baby.
Now I'm not saying that LL had these goals when she complained it was boring to be feeding babies, and personally I think it's immature to argue about your assignments, but liking babies and respecting them as people is not at odds with delivering intensive care.
I mentioned a while back, before the break, that when my child was in NICU, a certain trainee doctor would poke and poke and poke a baby because she was struggling to get the vein and would not have anyone in the room with her. One time, my child was screaming in a way, I had never heard a baby cry before, I looked at the Nurse sitting with us, and she was upset. After another minute, she got up angrily and said 'right, thats enough' she stormed into the room, took my child from the doctor, some words were exchanged but I didn't hear them, and gave my child to me, saying ' There we are Mum, she needs her Mummy right now". This doctor had absolutely no care about how my child was feeling or how she was hurting her. She ignored the screams and just kept on hurting her. My child, now 18, has scars from NICU on her feet from the longline and on her wrists. She also has three round marks that look like cigarette burns on one forearm, I remember when I found them, they were red, perfectly round and looked very sore. I called a nurse over, and she had no idea what it was, called another nurse over, and she had no idea either. They went off to review the notes from the night before, came back and said there was nothing in the notes, but they think it could have been caused by a ultraviolet mini torch thing? used to find the veins and that it had been pressed against her so hard for so long she had been burned. Turns out that the trainee doctor was on the night shift the night before.
JME
