Reflective Account In Nursing

The first time I entered the nursing area I sensed an environment of calmness. The room was clean and well designed. The temperature was perfect, neither cold, nor hot. The area was well lighted, but no bright. The cribs were aligned around a center that had two rocking chairs, a carpet, boppy pillows on the floor, and some toys. An area separated by a screen was assigned to mothers who wanted to breastfeed their babies in a private space. In the background soft low volume music, was playing at a times. The caregiver had some babies sleeping in the cribs and others awake on the floor on boppy pillows. She used a kind, soft voice, and told a baby that she would pick her up to change her diaper. As the caregiver walked to the changing table, she smiled to the infant and talked to her. Later on, around 11 am the young mothers entered to the nursery room to check on their babies. By this hour, the caregiver had already feed them (at least one time) and changed their diapers. Some of them approached to their infant’s crib and caress its baby while were sleeping. Others picked them up from the cribs and carried them around.

My role there at that moment was of an observant.

Through looking at the young mothers with their infants, I could see that they were being captivated by their infant’s presence. Some of the mothers looked tired, newborns have needs that must be fulfilled almost every two hours through 24 hours. Regardless of their fatigue, their smiles and looks at their babies, gave significance to the concept of motherhood. I heard some asking questions. “Did he eat?”, “Was she fuzzy?”, “Last night she was awaking a lot!” The caregiver responded each time, but there not enough time to talk about it. The teenage mothers had to continue being students, and after few minutes they returned to work in assignments, no faraway, few steps behind that

door.
As I became more aware of the routine at the homebound, I started helping the caregiver with feeding the infants, changing their diapers, and sometimes changing their clothes. Task that took me the longest time to accomplish because infants doesn’t like changes in temperature, and removing little pants, tops, or socks put them in a mode of moving a lot.