Dear Father Who Thanked Me For Being At His Child’s Delivery,
Remember when you said to me “Thank you for being here” and I just looked at you and smiled and said “Sure thing”? Well, here’s what I really wanted to say to you, only I didn’t realize it at the time. I’m not very good at ‘on the fly’ and ‘spur of the moment’. As I said before, I’m a planner. Anyway, I wanted to thank you for acknowledging my presence at your child’s delivery in what must have been a moment of extreme fear and stress for you. Rarely do parents think to do that and I never expect it. I wanted to tell you that this is why I became a pediatrician. To help parents escort children through life until they can pave their own way. Your gratitude was beautifully heartbreaking and I carried that with me for the rest of my shift. You made me feel like I make a difference each and every time I attend a delivery whether I give oxygen and chest compressions or simply dry the baby, wrap her in clean blankets and hand her over to mom and dad.
Your baby did fine, didn’t even need me after all, but I’m glad we were there. More for my sake than yours. See, you gave me such a gift that night. I’ve been walking a little taller, feeling a little less run down, and generally feeling a sense of peace about my career path that I haven’t felt in awhile. So, although I will never see you again, I want you to know that as much as my presence impacted you that night, yours had the same effect on me. Thank you for being there. Thank you for your unabashed sincerity.
Best,
The Pediatrician At Your Child’s Delivery
I can really identify with this post. Practicing medicine has become more and more of a thankless job, and a stressful one at that. I am actually taken aback when a parent thanks me sincerely nowadays. They just take it for granted that we're there and we're supposed to go the extra 10 miles for them. As a pediatrician working in an after hours pediatric urgent care center, I've seen many patients walk in literally 2 minutes before we close to be seen for things that are not urgent. Most of these patients don't stop to give sincere thanks nor do they acknowledge us for staying an hour overtime. They must think that we can work like machines and never get tired, hungry or grumpy. We are human and have families and lives to lead outside of medicine!
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