Main entrance to Vanderbilt University Medical Center
Every birth is different, but people seem to agree the experience is typically an overwhelming rush. That was certainly the case for my wife and me when we welcomed our son to the world in February, and we had fantastic support from Vanderbilt University Medical Center’s birth center staff and our doula to help us navigate it. But you don’t hear quite as much about the people who help new parents cope with the next phase: the postpartum hospital stay. They also are absolutely crucial to leaving the facility with a healthy baby and some semblance of confidence that you will be able to care for them.
When our boy made his grand entrance, we’d already been at the hospital for about 18 hours. Emmett needed a relatively short stay in the NICU, so it took another four or five anxious hours for us to get bonding time with him. Then there were still more than two days of recovery and observation, with tests and checks and official documents to sign at various intervals around the clock. All of this was overseen by kind, calm, patient nurses and other support staff — folks who eased into stressful situations with sentiments like, “Oh, you have the baby with the hair,” referring to our kid’s shockingly blond mane — in whose debt I’ll always be.
Every step of the way, they were fully prepared to work with Mom, who’s given birth and also hasn’t slept in days, and Dad, who hasn’t slept either and is coping with his first simultaneous projectile vomit/blowout diaper/pee fountain situation while just getting used to holding a tiny but miraculously fully functional human. And at the end of it, they checked over the car seat, made sure we were stocked up with supplies and rolled us — wide-eyed with wonder — to the door.
We are incredibly lucky and have lots of people to thank for bringing our son into this heartbreaking world surrounded by love. These are some of the first.
—Stephen Trageser
Music Editor, Nashville Scene
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