Be honest - Do you get excited about birth anymore?

I don't work L&D but I know the feelin of being burnt out in one area of nursing... I'd say its time to move on. Thats one perk of being a nurse, there are so many different areas we can go. No need to stick around if you are feeling burnt out.

I'd say it's time for a change.

Been doing mainly L&D for 16 years.....nope, no excitement. You're not crazy! The first job I had out of nursing school was in L&D in a big teaching hospital here where the staff is mostly older L&D "lifers" and the residents do most of the work. In that environment, it's almost a recognized sport to be as passive as possible with pit/inductions/augmentation, etc so you could get through your shift WITHOUT delivering....After 8 years there I left and went to a private hospital and was SHOCKED to see that nurses were running "active pit" and having up to 4 or 5 deliveries in 12 hours, how RUDE!! I'm still doing it and I love the job as a whole, but you're right, the actual deliveries are WORK and there's just no getting around that fact.

Based on your description, it sounds to me as if you are experiencing anxiety due to the possibility of a complicated delivery or a bad outcome, which is very understandable. but in my experience (11 years in OB/NICU), those concerns lessened with time and experience, they did not get worse.

There were certainly times when I was exhausted near the end of a 12 hour shift, or fearful of known (and unknown) risks, but I never lost the sense of wonder at the sights and sounds of a baby coming into the world, or my sense of deep gratitude that a family would allow me the privilege of being present.

My best to you.

Wow. I would say there is something not right about this picture. On one hand, I agree with those that say its time to move on if you feel this way. On the other hand, I also agree with Jolie, that it sounds like you are experiencing some anxiety. Of course, I work at a hospital that has L&D, postpartum, and SCN all on the same unit. So I get the pleasure of the variety. I think I might get burnt out myself if I did labor after labor after labor. But I get the chance to experience it all and follow my patient from one process to the next. Although some think we have a fun, easy job, we can't forget that this is a specialized area. There are most certainly things that can go wrong, and those wrongs can be devastating. But we also have things that go amazingly well and right. Those are the things I like to hang on too. I never forget or let out of my mind, those risks, or possible distasters. But its comforting to me, to look forward to the miracle of birth and the life changing experience that I get the priviledge of experiencing everyday I work.

I worked the nursery for 2 or so years, Wellbaby and level 2 mostly. I have to tell you I got used to it all. There was no excitement for me. I did have pleasure watching the first time excitement of the new dad's and families. I used to hate being behind glass like a fish tank and feeling watched until I realized they could care less about me, just the babies. Hope that helps, I don't think you need to move on unless you really want to. I think I always thought I'd get tears in my eyes with every birth. After about a month, it's routine, and it's like "darn, I wanted to go to lunch but now I'll have to wait. Aslo, increased patient loads have made it harder to really get to know people.:redbeathe

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but ALL nursing is hard work. Good luck.

I've been an L&D nurse for 5years and still love it! Somedays I'm more "excited" than others to be present at a delivery. I really enjoy that fact that in L&D you have predictability and high acuity all in the same shift. I feel like i'm just hitting my stride also. I have a level of comfort that even if I don't know the answer, I know the resources to find the answer. I agree with the other posters. Sounds more like you have anxiety about what you do than anything else. Maybe it's the environment in which you work, not the specialty. If you don't feel you have a strong support system it can be scary. As another poster pointed out, all specialties are hard work and have thier own level of stress.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but ALL nursing is hard work. Good luck.

I'm not saying L&D is the only field that's hard work. I'm just saying that patients families don't seem to acknowledge this. They just think my job must be fun because I get to see babies born all day.

Maybe I'm just being hypersensitive, but I found this statement rude. Like "Good luck! (Sounds like you're not cut out to be a nurse at all if you can't handle hard work....)"

Let's try and be supportive here!

I worked in an NICU for 20 years. I do know how you feel. While family & friends would tell me how lucky I was to be able to "hold & rock babies all day long", we all know that there is much, much more to it all than that.

An RN from NICU had to attend every delivery, which relieved the L&D nurses from having to care for the baby & could devote all their attention to the mother. While I watched every delivery, I also was anticipating there being an unforeseen problem. Of course, when there was a problem, that also meant way more work!

I don't necessarily think that means that you are burned out, I think you are realizing that your job entails very hard work. If you do feel unsecure in your knowledge of how to handle a problem, take a NRP course or ask questions of co-workers. You may just need more time to feel more secure in your job.

Good luck with whatever you decide.

When I was ready to switch from psych, I thought I wanted L&D. Didn't interview in time. All the L&D spots were filled, but would I be interested in postpartum? Thought I'd give it a try. At least it was a foot in the door until something opened up in L&D. Now, six years later, I love postpartum and wouldn't transfer to L&D for anything.

For one thing, I've heard from the L&D nurses just how physically hard the job can be. For another, just when things are getting good and settling down, you have to transfer your patients to postpartum.

I really like what I do--teaching, giving breastfeeding instruction, caring for the babies, etc. Yes, there are some wild times in postpartum when mom decides to have a PP hemorrhage or baby gets funky, but those are exceptions.

Maybe you could switch to doing postpartum care. Just as with L&D, postpartum isn't the ooey-gooey specialty area where everything is cream cheese and rainbows, but it's physically less taxing and there are fewer uh-oh moments. You get to know the families and have time to give them some instruction and reassurance.

If this is an option for you, I encourage you to check it out.

I feel similarly. I find the labor and delivery part of L&D to be, frankly, rather boring. We have residents on our floor, so they manage the labors and I feel like a mere servant. Laboring and delivering a patient is just hard work.

Fortunately, we are also a critical care unit for very sick pregnant women, and I really enjoy the ICU part of L&D- women with strange and mysterious conditions under the care of the MFMs are far more interesting to me than laboring ones who want an epidural ASAP.