Welcome to Mother-Baby Musings!

I'm excited about blogging from the trenches of mother/baby. "Why 'trenches?'" you might ask. From the outside it seems as though mother/baby nurses have a cake job and in comparison to some jobs, we just might. But this is nowhere near 'easy.' Spending twelve hours caring for new families, getting/keeping breastfeeding going well, showing new, tired, overwhelmed parents how to care for their baby, making sure said new baby stays well, and any host of other issues are par for the course.

I also work with stable antepartum patients as well as in the newborn nursery. Each of these patient groups brings a set of challenges that is unique. With antepartums, the question is not generally 'if', but 'when' they will 'break.' Getting to know these patients is generally joy but their situations are often heartbreaking as they face a pregnancy with unexpected complications and did not plan on spending weeks on end in the hospital unable to get up except to the bathroom.

When I'm in charge in the newborn nursery, I may not see all 35 babies I'm responsible for but I'm responsible for them nonetheless. Most babies, very fortunately, have no problems and go home as expected. But on the occasion when things don't go as planned, it's my job to catch those things, which may be a subtle as 'this baby doesn't look right' and have to convince a pediatrician of that, or as blatant as having to resuscitate a baby who's quit breathing.

I'm hoping in this blog to convey some issues that nurses in the above fields face, shed some light on common (or not-so-common) patient conditions we face, and questions that we ask ourselves on a daily basis.

Come along for the ride!