For anyone who went straight into Mother-Baby/L&D as a new grad, do you have any regrets?

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Hi! I'm a new grad who's been offered 2 positions, one in Mother-Baby and one in an ICU. My goal throughout nursing school was to be a labor and delivery nurse one day but I've been debating getting experience first such as in critical care before pursuing it. Has anyone gone straight into L&D/Mother-Baby/OB after graduating, do you have any regrets about it?

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.

I did; no regrets. I was fortunate that I was able to move around to other areas of nursing within OB/women's health over the years (OB research, outpatient OB/Gyn clinic, women's community health), and now I'm back in inpatient OB/L&D/postpartum.

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I’m still a new grad (December) and still in orientation in OB, doing PP/Mother-baby, well baby nursery (includes transition period from birth to a couple hours after birth, newborn screens, and general nursery care), and special care nursery. I have zero regrets. I look forward to getting up at 445-500 even though I HATE mornings. I love every stressful minute of orientation even when I do something “wrong” and know I’ve disappointed myself and my preceptor. I can’t imagine working on any other unit and always pictured myself in OB.

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Specializes in Peds/Post Partum.

Absolutely No Regret.

After passing boards I was lucky enough to land a job on a unit that split PP and Peds. So I got 2 specialties at 1 job.

We took low risk pregnancies and typical community hospital peds, so comorbidities weren't something I delt with. I'm sure on high risk units the adult med/surg background would be useful, but not absolutely necessary.

I hope you work out the kinks and fall right into place....it's an amazing specialty.

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Thank you everyone for your responses, I really appreciate it. I've decided to accept a Mother-Baby position where I'll also be crosstrained in labor and delivery :)

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Specializes in Mother-Baby Pediatrics.
On 3/15/2019 at 3:00 PM, klone said:

I did; no regrets. I was fortunate that I was able to move around to other areas of nursing within OB/women's health over the years (OB research, outpatient OB/Gyn clinic, women's community health), and now I'm back in inpatient OB/L&D/postpartum.

Klone - I was wondering if you can advise me...I have 1.5 years on med-surg and have spoken to the manager on L/D who recommended that I get some peds experience because people who start on Women's Services in our hospital start in post partum and then can eventually be trained in L/D. I am applying for a position in OBGYN clinic as telephone triage nurse because I want some 9-5 time. Do you think it is better for me to wait for a position to open in the hospital (for post partum) or do you think the telephone triage job might help me get hired at a hospital in OB later down the line?

THanks!

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Specializes in Nurse Leader specializing in Labor & Delivery.
2 hours ago, rabiamirou said:

Klone - I was wondering if you can advise me...I have 1.5 years on med-surg and have spoken to the manager on L/D who recommended that I get some peds experience because people who start on Women's Services in our hospital start in post partum and then can eventually be trained in L/D. I am applying for a position in OBGYN clinic as telephone triage nurse because I want some 9-5 time. Do you think it is better for me to wait for a position to open in the hospital (for post partum) or do you think the telephone triage job might help me get hired at a hospital in OB later down the line?

THanks!

IMO, an acute care hospital position in any unit is going to be more valuable/transferrable to inpatient OB than phone triage.

I don't find peds particularly transferrable to OB, or at least, not MORE transferrable than adult inpatient, but if that's what the hiring manager at your hospital wants, then you should heed her recommendation if you're hoping to get hired in her unit down the road.

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Specializes in Labor and Delivery.

Absolutely no regrets! I always knew L&D was my goal, but I thought PP was where I wanted to start out. Ended up with L&D right out of school, not gonna lie I was a little intimidated at first! But I’m so glad I landed where I did, and love that I’m not PP (although I do get to float there every now and then which makes for a nice change of pace). To be fair, had I landed in PP first I believe I’d have been perfectly happy with that as well but still have the goals of L&D. But since I have been able to do both, PP is far too boring for me most shifts and I’m thankful it’s not my everyday. I cannot imagine doing any other type of nursing though! I’m not interested at all. If it isn’t mamas and babies, no thank you!

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Specializes in L & D and Mother-Baby.

Nope! Started in Mother Baby, then within a few months cross trained to L & D. Almost 14 years later and no regrets! If L & D is your goal, full speed ahead!!

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Specializes in Maternal Child, Home Health, Med/Surg.

I'll make myself the one weirdo of the bunch, but...

I completely regret it.

Don't get me wrong, mother/baby can be a phenomenal experience. However, I wish I would have told freshly graduated me to run away. Far away. It could possibly just be the current place I am at. Because it's kind of a... "I enjoy what I do, mostly, but not where I do it."

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Specializes in L&D, Antepartum, Adult Critical Care.

Hi There;
I went right to level 3 L&D as a new grad, absolutely no regrets. We actually had a 2 bed Ob critical care area and after about 4 years of poking my head in and asking a ton of questions, I was offered the opportunity to cross train in "The Big House", the main trauma center. I loved it so much I transferred eventually to ICU.

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Hey everyone, thank you for sharing about your experiences! I ultimately chose a position and I'm in Labor and Delivery. I've been off of orientation now for a couple of weeks but I don't know. It's crazy to say this but I honestly hate it, like completely and utterly.... Midway through my orientation I just started to feel like I really didn't want to do this anymore, I hate circulating in the OR and C-sections, I get so much anxiety on the unit in general, I feel like I'm always running around because we're constantly short staffed and under supplied and I'm still so new I also doubt my abilities and decisions. I've had some great experiences with the patients and the families and I love the babies, I had an unattended delivery and that was amazing and almost made me change my mind but by the next day the feeling just set in again, I just dread going to work every day. I feel fed up most of the time.

Is this just a normal phase that will go away soon? Did anyone experience this too after starting?

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