Woman Says Nurse 'Ruined' Her Newborn's Gender Reveal By Telling Her Kids Before She Got To Surprise Them—Many Think It Was An Honest Mistake
She was frustrated that the surprise she waiting 9 months to share was spoiled. But viewers are pointing out that nurses have too much on their plate.
TikTok A mom who had her fourth baby wanted to surprise her three other children by revealing the newborn’s gender in the hospital, yet her plans were thwarted by a well-meaning nurse.
Nisha was ready to reveal her newborn’s gender to her older kids when the on-call nurse let the secret slip. The caption to her TikTok post read, “Can you imagine having a surprise gender and waiting for the nine months to tell your kids and the on the floors ruins it.”
Nisha had the camera focused on her newborn daughter in the bassinet beside her, wearing a pink knit hat. The nurse’s voice could be heard talking to Nisha’s other kids from behind the drawn curtain as she said, “Someone’s on their way to see a baby girl.”
Nisha let the camera drop to the bed.
The new mom was disappointed as the nurse revealed her baby's gender to her other children, ruining her surprise.
“What do you think it is?” she called out to her eldest daughter.
“A girl, because the nurse just said it is,” replied her daughter. “There’s two babies in this room,” Nisha said, noting in the caption that she tried to play off the nurse’s mistake by tricking her kids into thinking the healthcare worker was referring to another baby.
“I think it’s a girl,” her daughter reiterated. “I think it’s a boy,” her son said. “I think it’s a girl,” her younger daughter said, pointing out the pink curtain as her proof.
Nisha received over 2000 comments on her post, most of which were empathetic toward the nurse. Many people asked Nisha in the comments if she’d made her needs known to the nurse, wondering if the nurse knew it was supposed to be a surprise gender reveal.
Many also noted that nurses work long hours with a high number of patients, and she most likely didn’t reveal Nisha’s baby’s gender maliciously.
Nurses are worn especially thin these days, as there's a massive nursing shortage across the United States. 4.7 million nurses are expected to retire in the next decade, and 1.2 million nurses are needed by 2030 to address the shortage. Nurses make up 50% of the global healthcare workforce.
While there are many reasons for the nursing shortage, factors include the increased pressure of the job due to the pandemic, diminished educational resources, an aging workforce, and the fact that more nurses are leaving the profession than entering it.
Even given that context, Nisha is allowed to have a negative response to the situation. Some people validated her experience, allowing Nisha to feel the full range of her complex emotions. As one person said, “Even if it was an accident, I completely understand being upset about it.”
Nisha made another TikTok to answer the question of whether or not the nurse was in on the surprise, and she addressed how she felt at the time.
“Everybody knew what was going on,” Nisha explained in her follow-up post. “The labor and delivery team knew, the night nurses knew, the day shift nurses knew, the covering nurses knew. Anybody who spoke with us knew what was going on.”
“It was even at the point where that nurse was in the hallway with my boyfriend, weighing the baby, and he was kind of letting her know, ‘yeah, the kids don’t know what’s going on.’”
Nisha gave context as to why they waited to find out the baby's gender. “We wanted to do things a little different, just because this was our last kid, so we wanted to kind of surprise them in a different way, so we thought we’d all wait to find out the gender.”
“So, that being said, I don’t feel like she intentionally did what she did. I feel like when she just crossed paths with the kids she was just so excited and she kind of just said what she said,” Nisha explained.
“It did ruin the moment,” Nisha said. “I stand strong on feeling that way.”
As one person noted in the comments, Nisha’s emotions are valid, regardless of whether the nurse’s mistake was unintentional. Nisha was able to hold space for both her disappointment about the gender reveal, and her knowledge that the nurse wasn’t being malicious in slipping up. Nisha acknowledged the nurse's humanity and her own feelings with compassion and grace.
“I was super mad just to know I waited nine months to tell my kids something, and then it was said in a split second. The younger kids didn’t realize what was going on, but my daughter, she definitely knew.”
But Nisha also acknowledged that what was important, in the end, was that her newborn made it earthside to be with her siblings, and that’s what counts.
“I just had to remember at the end of the day, I’m having a healthy baby and that’s all that matters,” Nisha said, showing that her perspective remains in the right place.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers celebrity gossip, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.