Aspiring CNM in L&D

[Goozgog]

So here I am working L&D. I have been there 4 weeks now and guess what? I am not particularly happy there. I am bothered by the fact that every woman who walks through our doors in intervened upon. I am bothered that we "RN's" have to cover our butts, so whatever the fetal monitor says, I have to show that I have intervened, usually with O2 etc..I am bothered that the "patient" gets multiple vag exams before, during, and after rupturing membranes, and then she ends up with a temp, chorio, and then a C-section. I am bothered that a co-worker gave me an attitide when I let my young pt on pit walk around the unit to help her labor progress. I didn't know the pt had to be on a monitor while walking. I said ok and put the pt on an avalon monitor. I felt so dumb!

I don't think I want to work there anymore. Maybe I will be happier working Hospice/days...

[DoulaCBE]

I just joined allnurses today and love it. So much great information. I loved you ladies talking about different ways to help the mom birth naturally.

I attended a birth in the hospital. When we got to the hospital mom was 5cm and only laboring for a couple hours. She was progressing well. They automatically brought in a bag of pit for her. She wanted to go natural. So, we told the nurse that she didn't want the pit. The nurse looked at us for a moment, and then closed the door for privacy. She told us quietly that she moonlights at a birthing center and she wanted to help us do this naturally. So, she just put the bag of pit down. Later as labor was progressing beautifully another nurse came in and asked our nurse if the mom was given pit. Our nurse told her she was just about to do it. She never did. :) She even told us that the MD that my client had was horrible with natural births and that he was also slow to get to the hospital. But, there was a great MD who worked well with moms. So, she waited to call my client's MD until she knew he wouldn't make it in time. And sure enough he didn't. So, she ran and got the other MD to "help" out and he caught the baby and was great. She was wonderful and made a lasting impression on me.

Sadly, I don't have many of those experiences. I have been yelled at by nurses for "doing some sort of voodoo" to 'make' my client birth naturally. And I have been asked if I was a real doula or a fake one. :icon_roll

So, naturally I have been a little hesitant as to which road I will take to be a midwife. I don't know though. Although I am scared of working int he hospital; other RN friends tell me that it's not what I imagine. I always thought that the MD's could boss RN's around and tell them what to do but they tell me that is so far from the truth. And lately I have been feeling the pull to be a CNM. I want to eventually open up a birthing center in this little town, but I would also like to be that provider who calms the scared mom or helps a woman have the birth she had hoped for. That's why I started looking into this site.