Physical touch

Back in the early 2000’s when I studied to become a Nail Tech in Jamaica, Queens (NY) our teacher said to us “Your touch may be the only touch that person receives that day.” Working as a nail tech I learned to touch other people’s bodies, strangers. I learned that some want to talk, some one to read, some want to sleep when they get their nails done. I don’t think about my nail tech days that often, but for some reason what my teacher said back then popped up in my head the other day. Touch, such a basic human need that we sometimes forget how important it can be. 

Maybe it’s not so strange, looking back, that I became a midwife after all. I became accustomed to touching people, their hands and their feet. Feet are something that a lot of people don’t like touching, I learned from doing pedicures. I never minded, not many bodily things trigger me. Now I touch people in places that are even more intimate than feet. So intimate that some haven’t even explored in their own bodies. Have you felt your own cervix? If not, it’s time. 

I always try to be respectful when I touch other people. Before I do a vaginal exam I look at the person and ask for permission. To be honest I don’t like doing vaginal exams, but they are a part of my job. Just like taking blood tests from babies or having to write stuff in a patient chart, I don’t enjoy doing it but I do it because it’s my job. 

But I do enjoy the part of my job that lets me connect to people via touch. Tightly wrap a newborn baby in my arms as their mother pumps. Or place my hands heavily on a breastfeeding mother’s shoulders to help her relax. Touch is such a basic thing, but sometimes it is what changes everything.