Their Mothers Were Teenagers. They Didn't Want That for Themselves.

[3catwoman3]

2. Early in my nursing career, I was working in a level II premie...

...nursery - not the super-early micro premies. These babies mostly needed to grow and be able to maintain their body temps. We called them "feeders and growers." Basically, a fun and happy job.

Two of our babies had moms who were only 13. I arrived one time for my evening shift, to find one of the young moms, whose baby was almost ready to go home, sitting in one of the nursery's many rocking chairs, holding her baby in one arm, and sucking her own thumb on her other hand.

It was one of the saddest, most chilling things I have even seen, and the image is as vivid in my mind now as when I first saw it, way back in 1974. I remember thinking, "Here is the poster picture for why this should not happen,"