As a student nurse, I was most interested in Maternal-Newborn nursing, particularly Labor and Delivery.  After I graduated in 1970, I spent the next 17 years working in hospital obstetric units, earning a Masters of Nursing degree in Parent-Child Nursing, teaching Maternal- Newborn nursing at the University of Washington and working as the Maternal-Newborn Clinical Nurse Specialist at Swedish Hospital Medical Center in Seattle.  Even when I switched to psychiatric nursing in 1987, the therapy modality I used was developmental in nature.

So last Friday, when I saw a news story about a baby who had recently been born still in its amniotic sac I was mesmerized.  As I watched the video, I sensed I was getting a glimpse of something very sacred.

Another event that was happening at the same time was that I was preparing to take Blogging University’s Writing 201: Poetry class.  I’ve never written poetry before and have no idea if I have any talent for it, but I wanted to give it a try. Our first assignment was emailed to us last night.  We are to write a Haiku focusing on some aspect of water. Examples the instructor gave were “A murky puddle or a glistening lake. Amniotic fluid or your grandfather’s glass of Seltzer. A bath, a hose, an oasis.”  A Haiku consists of “three lines containing five, seven, and five syllables, respectively.”

When I read the instructions, the baby in the amniotic sac came to mind.  Below you will find the video I had seen, and my first attempt at writing a haiku!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M59Q6dKQfCA

Haiku

fetus warm, contained
inside, new life unfolding
parents eagerly waiting

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I could have also said:

fetus warm, contained
inside, new life unfolding
God’s gift in human form

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Which poem speaks most to you?

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Written, in part, for Writing 201: Water

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