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A quick warning before we get started,

this episode contains sensitive conversations

about the medical treatment of severely ill infants and children.

It may be a hard

lesson for some.

I was a pediatric nurse for about 12 years and I worked with technology dependent

children. Over half of them were severely premature infants. They were born somewhere between 23 and

27 weeks gestation. 50 years ago, 24-week gestation pre-mee wasn't called a pre-mee. It was called a stillborn.

The average pregnancy is 40 weeks long, which means the children this woman treated were born just over halfway through gestation.

As a pediatric nurse, she treated these kids not only in the immediate aftermath of birth,

but also in the weeks, months, and years following, if they survived that long.

It's a painful and difficult road.

And our guest has complicated feelings

...