Should a Doula Thank a Nurse?

When I was in college, I worked at a gift and candy shop. It was an easy gig, I got to eat all the homemade chocolates I wanted, and I worked mostly unsupervised and alone. I remember distinctly, an interaction with a customer where I just wasn’t feeling it. I decided I didn’t have any energy to add anything extra to my exchange with her. She brought me her merchandise and attempted to make conversation, and I sat with a sour look on my face, going through the motions of ringing her up. (This is all horrifyingly embarrassing to me now, by the way, but as a teen, I didn’t give it a second thought.) Suddenly the woman said, “It seems like you aren’t in a good mood today.” She said it kindly, without expectation, and it hit me: She noticed I wasn’t being nice!
 
Wherever doulas gather, there is a question often asked: “Can I thank a nurse?” Not meaning, can I say thank you when she brings us a chair or a drink, but, when I notice a nurse going above and beyond for my client, can I send her a thank you note later? Is this appropriate?
 
I have heard doulas answer, absolutely not! She is just doing her job. If she hadn’t been your client’s nurse, she would have been someone else’s. She did it yesterday, she did it today, and she’ll do it tomorrow. She is being paid to work as a nurse. She is just doing her job.

---

As a doula and a childbirth educator, I take clients in the Bakersfield, Visalia, Hanford, and Tulare areas of Central California. I recently attended a birth where I witnessed a nurse just doing her job. It wasn’t that the nursing care she gave was poor – it was just her flat affect showed she simply had nothing else to give. Just like the teenaged-Stacie in the opening story, this nurse was going through the motions with no smiles, no casual conversation, no empathy for the pain my client was dealing with. She was on autopilot, she could have been a robot, and we all noticed it seemed like she was in a bad mood. In that moment, it felt like she hated her job and resented the fact that someone dare be having a baby on her shift in L&D.
 
As people, don’t we like to hear when someone notices and appreciates the job we are doing? I know I do! Why not, then, send a note to a nurse you felt went above and beyond versus just doing her job? In fact, send it to her boss, and her boss’s boss! Send that praise onward and upward! Let the world know you appreciated this nurse’s attitudes and efforts, her care and concern.
 
Fortunately, I can say this is a rarity. Most of the nurses I encounter are helpful and kind to the families they serve. We all have bad days, and I bet that lady I served so long ago doesn’t even remember me and my attitude way back when. But the day your baby is born – every person who walks in or out of that room can become a permanent fixture in the recollection of that memory. I still have deep, personal feelings for the nurses who cared for me through all my births, and how grateful I am that they are filled with positivity!  ​

---