NICU Nurse Gratitude Poem

I’m not sure how to thank you, or even where to start.
But what I want to say comes from deep within my heart.

I walked into the NICU full of fear and uncertainty,
Still raw and grieving from the fact hat my baby was taken from me.

But you let me be afraid, you held me as I cried.
You called my baby a miracle, you admired them with pride.

You let me take a break, you let my heart find rest.
You let me find myself again, you let me take a breath.

Thank you for showing me how to change my baby’s diapers.
How to lift their tubes and leads, how to learn the endless wires.

Thank you for reminding me that my strength comes from within.

That my baby knows my voice, that my baby knows my skin.

Thank you for making a hospital feel like a second home.
For becoming a part of our family, for loving my baby like your own.

I know the days are long and the nights are even longer.
But know that without you, I wouldn’t be a mother.

When our child asks to hear and know the story of their birth,
We’ll tell them all about our hero, the one called “NICU nurse”.

Thank you.

-Poem by Ashley Ham, Co-Founder of Dear NICU Mama