before getting pregnant in nursing school

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I know I risk ruffling a few feathers of moms on this board, but I feel this needs to be said. The nursing schools don't warn against it and they can't ask if your pregnant when they admit you. But I am saddened to see classmates drop out, so I feel compelled to warn others.

I've watched SEVERAL classmates out of my class drop out due to pregnancy/birth, and it makes me sad to see the loss potential good nurses. I don't know if they didn't realize what was involved in nursing school.... or perhaps did not realize they might need a c-section or extra time off? Out of an original class size of 72 students, we're now just weeks before our graduation and I estimate we've lost close to half the class -- between failing exams to medical/personal reasons including a bunch of dropping out related to new babies.

In my school you get one second chance to re-enter the program. Then you're done pretty much forever.

This week really got me: we lost a classmate who was only weeks away from graduation. She had to drop out last year's senior year because of giving birth. This time around it was a major conflict with her clinical instructor. Instructor failed her in that rotation, so the student fails the semester. If she hadn't missed last year, she could just re-start with a new clinical instructor and finish the final semester. But now she is done - as in failed out of this nursing school forever. The next closest nursing school has a 3-4 year wait list and high admission requirements.

So please please please.... think long and hard about mixing nursing school and pregnancy. Even the best planning and best pre-natal care won't guarantee you might not need a c-section (a guaranteed clinical rotation fail due to days missed). And it's just a stressful time in general: hard to enjoy the joy of that beautiful new baby when you're short on sleep, studying constantly, and stressed out.

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Specializes in ICU, Home Health, Camp, Travel, L&D.

Seems to me you're jumping in with hobnailed boots where angels fear to tread.

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I am certain that people have the consequences explained to them at the beginning of the program, so no one is caught by surprise when the school policies are applied to their situation.

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Specializes in Acute Rehab, Progressive Care.

I'm sure some people don't go into school intending to get pregnant.

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I agree with all the above posts, but I think there is nothing wrong with the OP reminding people.

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I think this is good advice - even in my current Micro class one of the girls at our lab table who I really like and would love to succeed has found she is getting a failing grade, just due to missing lab time and things that can't be made up for pregnancy related reasons. It's just good advice for people who have the option and the time to postpone a larger family for a year or two. Not the right advice to everybody, but it might be great advice for someone on the fence about it.

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It's just common sense...

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Specializes in Emergency/Cath Lab.
It's just common sense...

HA HA HA HA now thats a good one :jester:

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Everyone is different. It's also hard to believe that there is such a large number of nursing students getting pregnant and failing. I've seen a girl have TWO children while in nursing school and graduate. Did she have to take a semester off? Yes. Did she fail and it end her nursing school career? No. Did she have to attend another school/program? No. It just simply delayed her graduation date.

In my first year, I saw a girl get pregnant and she was so completely fatigued that she couldn't do anything...not even study.

This semester, my classmate had a baby 2 months ago. She gave birth on a Saturday and was in class Wednesday. She's doing really well and hasn't missed her clinicals AND she's completing her preceptorship.

Everyone is different and handle things differently.

I don't have any kids, but I know that having children is not the end of the world and it certainly doesn't end a person's career or cause them to fail in school. If anything, having a child is a motivating factor to most people and drives them to be better and do better because it's no longer all about them.

My best friend obtained her MSN while battling MS and finding out that she was pregnant. It was hard, but everytime she felt like giving up, it was the life inside of her that made her go on. She graduated on time.

So, really I just want to say that maybe the people that you're refering to who no longer progressed, were unable to for a multitude of reasons and not just because of a pregnancy. If they were passing at the time of their pregnancy and an unfortunate event occured, they would only receive a W (withdrawal) and not a WF (withdrawal Failure). I'm also sure that individual cases can be brought to the attention of the nursing department when unforseen incidents do occur. It's just a rare occasion that a "great" student would not be allowed to return because they were ill, or their child was ill, or they had a miscarriage. There is no penalty for withdrawing, if passing.

Well, at least this is the case at my school.

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Heres my two cents. I got pregnant dec 09 and started nursing school jan 2010. I was at the too of my class never missed a day of school and had my daughter during our summer break and went right back to school. Graduated dec 2010 took my nclex feb 2011 and passed. Its duable I didnt think it was hard at all and my husband deployed alot during my pregnancy.

Good luck it can be done.

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