[after the program]

“One of my colleagues delivered a regular birth and the woman had a horrible tear, a tear of fourth-degree!* My colleague blamed herself (even though she had nothing to do with it), and since that day she asked to work in the maternity ER all the time, so she won't need to deliver any babies. As her supervisor, I told her that we'll work together. I asked her to take a moment to look at herself, from the side, at that childbirth. She gasped and tears began to fill her eyes, and we stayed with these feelings a bit longer. I worked with her like we learned – to make place for such feelings and allow her to express what she couldn't express, and in every shift for a week we took five minutes for ourselves, and each time I asked her again about that tear situation, "what would you like to do?," "what could have helped you?," "what do you feel, now when it’s all over?," "what do you need right now?...“

A week later when I asked her again, she told me that her smile came back and her hands are back working.”

 

 

*A severe perinatal tear damaging the anal sphincter (third degree) and the rectal mucosa a (fourth degree)