What's it like in maternity clinicals?

[BookishBelle]

Hi! I'm actually getting excited to start my second semester in nursing school, which will be maternity for the first half. What can I expect? What kind of things have happened to you during your maternity clinicals? I'm also interested in ways I can get prepared- right now watching registered rn to get a head start on the things I'll need to know. Every school is a little different, and every instructor also differs in what they will have you do, I know, but just interested in what other people's experiences were!

[KrCmommy522, BSN, RN]

Mine was BEYOND BORING!!! Literally every day I was there except for 1 there was NOTHING! The 1 day that something was going on I had a pt scheduled for a C-section (which I was excited to see). She was scheduled for a C-section because her previous birth she was unable to get the baby out because her pelvis was too small, so after a while they switched and did a C-section. So, for this pregnancy they just scheduled her for a C-section right away. So, she came in for her scheduled C-section and decided to announce that she didn't want to do that. She wanted to try to delivery lady partslly since she didn't get to before (of course the dr explained that she didn't get to experience it before because her pelvis was too small and the baby couldn't get out, and since her pelvis hasn't grown it's still too small and will put the baby at risk, but the mom wanted to try so the dr agreed - my thought was why is this the time the mother is bringing this up. I mean they had to have planned the C-section the entire time so why did she feel the morning of her scheduled C-section was the time to bring up that she wanted to try a lady partsl birth? Just seems like something you would have brought up to your dr before...but anyways)....So, she tried a lady partsl delivery. After a few hours, the dr said that's it we need to do a C-section and she got taken in for a C-section, which I got to watch - So, I saw half of a lady partsl birth (without the birth part - haha) and a C-section. That was the only day I had anything to do. The other days we just sat around. And I watched the babies. I thought I would LOVE it, but I ended up HATING it. I even went through a time where I thought nursing is NOT for me and was going to quit. But that wasn't all the boring endless days!

[Destin293]

I remember it being boring. I saw 1 lady partsl delivery which was cool and 1 c-section. As far as actually spending time with babies, that didn't happen. We would see them briefly after birth, but once they were all cleaned and settled, they were sent for rooming in with the mom's. We pretty much spent the rest of the day getting vitals and changing bed linens.