[lovingtheunloved]

So blah. I do my first OB clinical tomorrow. I'm terrified of babies. And they're gonna make me hold one! I'm soooooooo not a kids person. They're wiggly little critters. Can I go on strike?

[BoonersmomRN]

Swaddle the baby and it won't be a "wiggly little critter" anymore. Most of my OB rotation the babies were swaddled anyway by the staff...so I only had to swaddle 2 and it's easy. A lot of my classmates didn't consider themselves "baby people" but they enjoyed the rotation b/c 99% of it is a HAPPY rotation. I understand not being comfortable with a particular age group...but it's only a short time and you can do it!

[lovingtheunloved]

Yes but they're ITTY BITTY. And I'm clumsy.

[traumaRUs]

lol....I remember my OB rotation in the ADN program - I was bored to tears because the nurses didn't think we were smart enough to even hold the babies. That experience guaranteed I would NEVER EVER in a milliion trillion years do OB and I never had - tee hee hee..

[CritterLover]

Originally Posted by lovingtheunloved

Yes but they're ITTY BITTY. And I'm clumsy.

Wow, I sooooooo agree with you.

Don't have kids, don't want kids (sorry, mom).

They are cute......from a distance.

All that said, I actually enjoyed my OB rotations. Even considered NICU (Wow! Hard to believe, in retrospect).

Go (not like you have a choice! ). Keep an open mind. It won't be that bad. I spent most of my time in the labor rooms, where you can pretty much just observe and don't have to do too much hands-on stuff. I spent less than a day in the actual nursery.

You'll be fine. Just don't drop anyone.

[Jolie]

Originally Posted by lovingtheunloved

So blah. I do my first OB clinical tomorrow. I'm terrified of babies. And they're gonna make me hold one! I'm soooooooo not a kids person. They're wiggly little critters. Can I go on strike?

Consider yourself lucky! My combined OB and Peds rotation was all of 9 weeks. The other 2-1/2 years of my nursing school clinical career was spent with BIG people, who terrify me!

[Thedreamer]

Be thankful youre getting an OB rotation. I just found out TODAY that come two weeks from now with my new term we are getting shafted. Our OB rotation is in a school for young women who drop off thier babies. Its basically day care.

You can guarentee im going to administration in the morning to complain. What happened to Niccu? What happened to our hospital rotations and taking care of SICK children?

[CrufflerJJ]

Originally Posted by lovingtheunloved

So blah. I do my first OB clinical tomorrow. I'm terrified of babies. And they're gonna make me hold one! I'm soooooooo not a kids person. They're wiggly little critters. Can I go on strike?

Little critters are neat to hold & cuddle. That being said, though, I do not like treating sick/injured kids on the ambulance. That's due to a combination of factors (most of our patients are adults, kids crash so quickly compared to adults,...).

Handling/treating/assessing little kids gets easier after you become a parent yourself. The down side to that is that you tend to fret more about YOUR little ones at home after seeing what can happen to other little ones.

Remember - you used to be one of those wiggly little critters. It's amazing to hold a tiny little life in your arms, and think how much they're going to grow over the next 10-15 years! Be amazed, and you might not be so scared.

[TazziRN]

Yes, they're itty bitty, but they're too small to be interested in wiggling. They just wanna sleep!

[CrufflerJJ]

Originally Posted by TazziRN

They just wanna sleep!

And fill diapers!!