The baby by the door
When a young mother has a baby with a birth defect, at the
hospital, she does not expect the baby to live and does not want to make the
long, hard ride to a larger hospital in Port-Au-Prince. She, nor her family have any money. A vising doctor puts in an IV and feeding
tube when the mother refuses to nurse her baby.
They say, when the baby is stable they will take it to Port-Au- Prince
but the mother, in the night, places the baby outside her door and lets her
much loved baby go. In time, she will
collect her few belongings and return to the countryside with her family
without her baby. There will be other
times.
There are none amongst us who do not understand. There are no resources to care for her
baby’s on-going health care needs; no schooling or visiting nurses or rights of
the disabled. The mothers say that the
ride will be bumpy and painful for the baby and the surgery will be painful
too. In this one, unthinkable but loving
act, the mother cares for her baby the very best she can.
We understand the pain and suffering of so many surgeries
for a baby, even in the United States.
People share stories of the difficult lives children have even when
there are resources and support. We
grow quiet as we think of this mother; her tiny baby wrapped in a blanket by
her door, ready to travel in her heart to a place where angels wait arms open.
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