Although it goes largely unacknowledged, there truly is so much work involved in becoming a parent.
Just trying to get pregnant alone can be a real struggle for couples who have to deal with various health issues or complications.
And that’s without taking into account the difficulty of pregnancy and the subsequent childbirth!
So it is without a doubt an event of much relief and joy when you finally have your newborn child safe and sound in your arms.
Even better when they are healthy and happy!
As you cradle them against your body, they act as a very real, very physical reminder that all that hard work you had put into your pregnancy has paid off.
So when something happens to them, it becomes a bit of a nightmare.
Jennifer Melton is a new mother from Tennessee.
She had just given to a healthy newborn son, Nate, the day before.
Her childbirth had gone smoothly, and all was well.
When the nurses came to take her son for his routine physical, she had no problem handing over her baby boy.
Nothing could have possibly gone wrong here, all the baby was expected to undergo was some blood tests and weighing.
In the meantime, Melton was instructed to rest for a few hours.
As previously discussed with her nurses, Melton was later given her son back, right on schedule.
But then the nurse mentioned something in the passing that sent the new mother’s alarm bells ringing – a procedure performed by the doctors.
Melton was shocked, as she had not been informed about her son needing any medical procedure at all.
Upon questioning, the nurse had then explained to her about the supposed “tongue clipping” procedure that Melton’s son had just undergone.
What had happened was that the doctors had performed a surgical operation called frenulectomy, wherein they removed the piece of tissue that connects the tongue to the floor of the mouth.
Unfortunately, this was not something Nate needed.
As soon as she heard about this procedure in full detail, Melton was naturally horrified.
She then quickly examined her son’s mouth to see what damage had been done to her newborn child.
There, she saw the underside of his tongue was covered in bloody spots.
The sight of this made Melton instantly break down into tears.
As it turns out, there was another baby who was meant to undergo the surgical operation.
Unfortunately, there was a mixup – doctors had requested the nurses to bring in the wrong infant.
After that, they had proceeded to perform an unnecessary surgery on a baby that was only a day old.
Since then, Melton has taken to sharing her story with other parents in any way possible.
Calling the experience “her worst nightmare”, she hopes that informing others and arming them with the knowledge that this is a possibility will prevent new parents from having to endure a similar fate.
With any luck, this story will raise awareness over this sort of mishap and encourage all involved in everything baby-related to be much more careful.