Minding Baby Abigail

Abstract

This chapter depicts a composite case study of several neonatal cases I have facilitated as an ethicist working for over 10 years in a children’s hospital. This narrative is structured as a play in order to capture the immediacy and embodied dimensions of my clinical practice. Through this genre, I attempt to demonstrate how I weave mindfulness practice into everyday encounters with patients, families, and professional colleagues. Mindfulness brings awareness to one’s internal environment—sensations, emotions, thoughts—as well as one’s external environment—the sights, smells, sounds, and contexts that shape sensory experience. The genre of a play facilitates expression of this embodied dimension of clinical practice through the setting of the scene, the words spoken by the characters, the stage directions, and indications of the characters’ gestures and expressions.