To the editors.
Specifically, I would like to address several points that Ms. Shepard presented:
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(1) I find Ms. Shepard’s style of writing to be flippant and irreverent, especially in her frequent analogies of babies as non-human, e.g. she describes premature babies as having an “uncanny resemblance to pithed frogs,” or refers to them as “creatures,” or states that “animals, of course, abandon those of their litter that are not right.” She also compares premies to a “broken radio” and states that when they stop breathing, if “you give them a good shake . . . everything starts working again.” Ms. Shepard may have thought these were clever and cute analogies, but personally, I found them offensive. I think of the parents of a sick newborn currently in an NICU, and worry that after reading this article, they will wonder if their baby’s nurses think of him as an animal.
While some aspects of care in the NICU are painful, I’m not sure they are any more painful than hospital care for any other patient. Is starting an IV or drawing blood more painful for a baby than for a toddler or adult? We have come a long way in terms of pain management for the newborn, and what I believe is more gentle, compassionate and developmentally centered care. There is no comparison between NICU nurses and “Nazi doctors,” and I find the analogy reprehensible.
