Don't You Just Hold Babies All Day Long?

I found this on a tumblr blog named #WhatShouldWeCallNICUNursing

"'Don't you just like, I don't know..... hold babies all day long?'
Yes.

I hold a baby when I hand him to his mother for the first time, three weeks after his birth date.

I hold a baby when teaching a new mother how to breastfeed her child.

I hold a baby when morphine and walking the halls twenty-four hours a day are the only things that will quiet him down while he's withdrawing from the illegal drugs his mother took.

I hold a baby's arm still when my fellow nurse inserts an IV.

I hold a baby's head still while we bag oxygenated air back into his tiny lungs.

I hold a baby when he has no family to hold him.

I hold a baby when he takes his last breaths because his parents didn't make it to the hospital in time.

I hold a baby when I'm placing his lifeless, tiny hands in plaster to make a keepsake for his parents.... because there is no baby too hold anymore.

Yes.

I hold babies all day long."