There's a great article

Reconceptualizing the Nurse's Role in the Newborn Period as an" Attacher".

DJ Karl, JA Beal, CM O'Hare, PN Rissmiller - MCN: The American Journal
of Maternal Child Nursing, 2006 - mcnjournal.com

Does a lovely job of discussing the fact that when we work with new
moms, we can go beyond task orientation or teaching orientation and
truly give the mother and baby to each other. I think that SO much of
what we do is just this - and we "get it",many times more easily,
because of our backgrounds or natural orientation, compared to
perinatal nurses who may come from a different world view or
perspective. (I am trying to be very diplomatic here - partly because
where I work I see many RNs who do this very well.)

I will never forget watching Postpartum: A Bittersweet Experience and
watching Jeanne Watson Driscoll (a WONDERFUL rn, lc, psychologist and
teacher and author etc etc) swing a baby doll around by its feet to
punctuate a point. I almost had a heart attack (I had a newborn at the
time but was learning to be a Lamaze teacher). It changed my life and
my teaching style and my students often remark, "You treat that
(insert doll, stuffed animal) as if it was a real baby. You taught the
second half of class with it in your arms!" Yes I did - and I can cook
and clean that way too after years of practice.

The way we treat the mom will teach her how to treat her baby. The way
we treat those little helpless models teaches so much.

Dawn Kersula in Vermont - feeling passionate but a bit wordless!!

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