ABSTRACT
The neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) is a particularly unique instance of a liminal space. The NICU is a place of betwixt and between, where yearning, wanting, having and losing, presence and absence, empty arms and full breasts all exist simultaneously. Of the approximately 1000 babies admitted to the NICU each year, 5-6" will die. The authors have been surprised by how powerfully their own personal variously buried histories, especially those hidden in shame-filled spaces, have been evoked through their work in the NICU. In the NICU, the tension between what can be imagined and what dare not be, what can be remembered and what must not be, is borne both by the families living these traumatic stories and by those who listen to them. There is so much that can only be discovered gradually, about both past and future, and this process is burdened both by fear about a terrible knowing and by shame that haunts this knowing.
