{"id":206,"date":"2012-07-09T01:48:51","date_gmt":"2012-07-09T01:48:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/?page_id=206"},"modified":"2012-10-30T23:13:48","modified_gmt":"2012-10-30T23:13:48","slug":"the-day-i-withdrew-from-nursing-school","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/nurses-stories\/the-day-i-withdrew-from-nursing-school\/","title":{"rendered":"The day I withdrew from nursing school"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Nicole\u00a0[last name withheld at author’s request]<\/span><\/h3>\n
\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

I want to share with all of you the event that drew me into intactivism.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I began an OB\/GYN hospital clinical as a student nurse. One day, I was enlisted to attend a ‘routine circumcision.’<\/p>\n

I did not realize how much that event would shatter the very foundation of a career choice made in ignorance. I appeared in the doorway of the surgical room and saw the little newborn baby boy to whom I was ‘assigned’ for the day.<\/p>\n

I was 20 years old and did not having kids of my own. I did not anticipate the lurching sensation that gripped my heart as I looked upon that baby. He was laying strapped down to a table, so small and new – pure and innocent – trusting – all alone – no defenses.<\/p>\n

I walked toward the baby and wanted to take him off the table and shelter him – to tell him that it would be okay, that nobody would hurt him on my watch.<\/p>\n

Then in walked the doctor. Loud. Obnoxious. Joking with his assistant. As if he was about to perform a 10 minute oil change.<\/p>\n

Not once did he talk to this little baby. I am not sure he even looked at him – really\u00a0looked\u00a0at him.<\/p>\n

Rather, he reached for his cold metal instruments and then reached out for his object of mutilation: this sweet newborn’s perfect, unharmed, intact penis.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nI recall this little baby boy’s screams of pain and terror – his small lungs barely able to keep up with his cries and gasps for breath.<\/p>\n

I turned in horror as I saw the doctor forcefully rip and pull the baby’s foreskin up and around a metal object.<\/p>\n

Then out came the knife. Cut. Cut. Cut. Screaming. Blood.<\/p>\n

I stood next to the baby and said, “You’re almost done sweety… Almost done… There, done.”<\/p>\n

Then came the words from the doctor, as that son-of-a-b***h dangled this little baby’s foreskin in midair and playfully asked, “Anybody care to go fishing?!”<\/p>\n

My tongue lodged in my throat.<\/p>\n

I felt like I was about to vomit.<\/p>\n

I restrained myself. It was now my duty to take the infant back to the nursery for ‘observation.’<\/p>\n

And this is when I realized I couldn’t do it.<\/p>\n

I could not be a part of such a cold, sterile, out-of-touch medical model.<\/p>\n

Back in the newborn nursery, rather than observing, I cradled the infant. I held him and whispered comforting words as if he were my own. I’ll never forget those new little eyes watch me amid his haze. He knew I cared about him. He knew he was safe in my arms. He knew that I was going to take him to his mommy. But, deep in his little heart, at some level, I know he wondered where his mommy was. While he lay there mutilated in a level of agony that we cannot imagine – in what was supposed to be a safe and welcoming environment after his birth – where was his mommy?<\/p>\n

I made a note in the chart and then caught a glimpse of myself in a mirror. My chest and face had broken out in purple splotches.<\/p>\n

My next thought? I can’t do this.\u00a0I refuse to do this.\u00a0This is NOT for me. I took the baby to his mother who was complaining about ‘some pain’ she was experiencing…<\/p>\n

I never addressed her pain because I left to go to my locker. I grabbed my belongings and hoped that my rejection of this ‘medical system’ could serve as some type of redemption for the violation of that newborn that I cradled in my arms that day.<\/p>\n

The next day, I withdrew from nursing school and never looked back.<\/p>\n

Originally published at\u00a0http:\/\/www.drmomma.org\/2010\/01\/day-i-withdrew-from-nursing-school.html<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n<\/em><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Nicole\u00a0[last name withheld at author’s request]   I want to share with all of you the event that drew me into intactivism. A few years ago, I began an OB\/GYN hospital clinical as a student nurse. One day, I … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":69,"menu_order":3,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-206","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":495,"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/206\/revisions\/495"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/69"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/childrightsnurses.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}