Information in different areas

shay · Feb 8, 2002

I have done OB ever since I graduated and love it, but I must admit I'm ready to leave it now and go to ER or ICU. I'm personally ready for something different. I'll probably always do OB prn, though. But, you asked what we love/hate about it, so here's my take:

I love helping a woman through a difficult/scary delivery and making a real connection with her. I love the quiet grace and peace that comes with sitting with a family facing a stillbirth, holding their hands and crying with them. I love handing a sweat-covered, birth-weary woman her pink, swaddled, screaming newborn for the first time. I love showing a terrified first time father how to rub his wife's back in just the right place, or helping him hold his new baby for the first time and how he treats the baby like a piece of china. I love pink baby toes when they fan out and stick out from under the blankets. I love working with doctors who trust you (for the most part) implicitly and respect your opinion. I love working on a unit where dirty jokes are viewed by the staff as funny and not "inappropriate." I love the funny grin that a woman in labor gets on her face 20 seconds after you shoot Stadol in her IV.

I hate the way some family members completely go psychotic when a woman is in labor; so much so that you have to call security to escort them out. I hate women who think 'A Baby Story' is gospel. I hate it when fellow nurses that work on other units gush 'ooooooo!! Your job must be so fu-un!' but have never known the feeling in the pit of your stomach that comes when you see a total absence of fetal cardiac activity on the ultrasound screen and have to break the news to the parents. I hate that my only male patients since I graduated have all had umbilical cords. I hate the sick, sad feeling that comes helping a family through a stillbirth, and when the doctor doing the delivery is cold and detached. I hate taking care of a pregnant woman high on crack who expects me to be her waitress. I hate that my scope of practice is so limited. And I hate it when a friend who I know is going to be horrid in labor asks me to be there for the birth as her 'psuedo-doula.'

OB is great. But just like every aspect of nursing, there are parts you will hate and parts you will love. If it's what you want, go for it! Congrats on your impending graduation.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Feb 8, 2002

I want to add that I hate the "labor and family from hell" when I am ready to go in after that baby with a melonballer and I know there is still 8h left to the shift.

Hate the social inductions and C sections for doc's convienence

Love the natural childbirth that thought she would never make it and comes out of the labor amazed at her newborn, and at herself for being able to do it.

Love being privy to the most intimate moments of a couple's relationship, and teaching the Dads that sometimes it's OK not to fix the problem- just being there for her is enough.

Goodlaura6 · Feb 9, 2002

Way back in the dark ages (1973) I started my nursing career in OB, I started on the PP floor. All Mom's and Babes, all the time! It took me about 2 years to figure it all out and yearn for "something more" ...SO I went down the hall to the Nursery (All areas were seperate back then) and learned to care for the baby's ..well baby care and special care nursery. That was fun and interesting for about a year .. I travelled even further down the hall and started L&D ..WOW!! Now here was were it was happening!!!! 28 years later I still LOVE L&D!!! I doubt if I could have done it properly without learning PP / Nursery first ...but maybe I could have ..All I know is that, for me, it's all in L&D!!!! So, maybe don't go straight there, play around a year or two elsewhere ... people will always be having babies!!!

spburn · Feb 10, 2002

Thanks you for your opinions. I appreciate you all helping me understand what you like and dislike about OB.

NurseTami · Feb 11, 2002

I too wanted to do OB. many hospitals in my area do ccouplet care. Well, no one was hiring new grads to ob when I graduated in May, even though I was an LPN for 12 years, I only had long term care experience.

So I took that full time possition on Med surg, and sure enough an opening came along and the job is mine!!!!

So don't be afraid to go to work somewhere and wait for an opening. It worked for me!

Jolie, BSN · Feb 11, 2002

Congratulations, Tami! Welcome to the wonderful world of Maternal-Child Health!:)

mark_LD_RN · Feb 17, 2002

I have worked PP, L&D, nursery, ob, and in LDRP units. I like them all each has its good and bad. I found post partum a little less stressfull and I got more time with patients teaching them and working with them with breast feeding and such.

I really like L&D but it is usually feast or famine, very busy or very slow. It can be the greatest happiest place on earth but i agree with the earlier post. IT can be the worst, there is nothing like the feeling of a fetal demise or when a birth goes bad. It can take an emotional toll on a nurse. I have had to deal with more fetal demises than I wish to mention.

but i still love my job, nothing beats the response and the bonding I experience with my patients. I truely love my job.So be sure to do what you really are called to do. If I can help let me know. you can write me at [email protected]

mother/babyRN, RN · Mar 2, 2002

All of what you all said and so much more. I love it when daddy cries from happiness and we are ALL involved and for them, those few moments, become part of their new family....

Angel Baby · Apr 1, 2002

L&D--I love it because it's unpredictable, high acuity and fun (when it's good). I hate poor physician to nure collaboration and the fact that administration doesn't understand what we do.

Postpartum--It's fun to watch the evolving bonding between new Mom's and their babies. It's a nice break when the stress in L&D becomes overwhelming, but I wouldn't want to do it all the time--not enough action.

Nursery--It's fun to play with babies (from time to time). And, they don't complain (hehehe). The down side--conveyor belt nursing (like the cattle round up for circumcisions.....). It would get boring day after day (for me, that is.........)

The other thing about L&D is that you usually get some cross training to postpartum and well nursery, so you are more marketable and can "help out" in these areas from time to time.