Baby vs no baby... help!

Nursing Students General Students

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Hi! I will be joining the nursing program in a year which consists of 3 semesters for my RN and then 3 online semesters for my BSN. I will be quitting work to focus solely on my school work. Me and my boyfriend want to have a baby but I'm torn whether to wait or not. If I don't wait, the baby should be a newborn when I start school in August of 2018. We have a decent support systems with both our mothers being retired, and would probably get some assistance for daycare. I'm worried if I wait til after I finish my first 3 in school semesters then the medical bills will be too high for us to have a child at that time. At my job, all pre and postnatal care is covered by my insurance program. I don't know if I should wait and it be more expensive, or start trying to conceive and have a newborn in the nursing program. I need help!

Specializes in ER.
I'm thinking on finishing the classes I can take outside of the nursing program. I have 4 left for my bachelor's portion. Then I would only have 3 classes per semester and 2 per semester for my BSN.

2-3 classes in prereqs does not even come close to the same amount of work for 2-3 classes nursing school. I rarely studied in my pre-reqs. Nursing school is a different game. At the end of the day you're the mom. I would never tell someone that they shouldn't be a mom and a nursing student, but you asked... Its not a good idea. You wouldn't have time to enjoy your newborn baby and pass nursing school and sleep.

Specializes in Critical Care and ED.

I've known so many women to lose their hopes and dreams for the future because they had kids instead of furthering their career. While they had good intentions to juggle both, the reality always kicked in and they had to abandon their career progress while the rest of us moved on. One friend signed up for the RN to BSN class but decided to drop out because she wanted to have another baby. She never went back and got her degree and is now stuck working nights because of the childcare. Another friend always wanted to be a CRNA but two kids later that's just a pipe dream. Wait...get your degree...and then you have the means to be flexible and live your life.

wait. babies can be HARD and TIME CONSUMING - just like school. Don't put yourself (or a baby) through that if you can avoid it - and you can avoid it now!

I have 2 kids, 6 and 3, they are great but they are time consuming - and obviously not babies. Plus, you need 100% reliable child care. Grandma's are great, but what happens if one of them falls and breaks a hip or one decides they want to go on vacation for 3 weeks in Arizona, or they just decide they can't?

I'm not even gonna touch the idea of having a baby & buying a house with someone you're not legally tied too. IN MY OPINION this is a bad idea. I understand that bad things happen even to married people, but you have a lot more legal protection when you have that marriage license than when you don't - not just talking divorce, but medical issues too!

Please keep in mind that babies/children make EVERY SINGLE THING harder in life. You really need to make sure you're set up financially and support wise before you ever consider having children. People really need to start being more responsible when considering having a family and assuming the financial burden.

Specializes in Psych, Geriatrics.

I was married and became pregnant my final semester of nursing school. I would STRONGLY vote to wait until done with clinical and possibly school, maybe even a year of nursing work. I didn't see your age, but "waiting" more was not an option for us - we were approaching that age where eggs go bad. If I had been twenty-something I would have waited.

Not only was I constantly sick during clinical, and exposed to gross things galore, I couldn't get a job out of nursing school either. You try to "hide" the pregnancy, they will still find out in pre-employment stupid health screening and fire you. You admit to it, you may not be hired. I know, federal law protects, blah blah. But they will phrase it as something else to get rid of you.

Even if you get a job, many residency RN programs /training make you work for them 1-2 years to pay it back and you might not have enough time with them to be protected by FMLA when you have baby; you may be forced to repay thousands in "training costs."

Finally, nursing school is an incredible endeavor of hard work and long hours and balancing that with a new, first baby - I can't imagine. You also can't predict how you will recover from the birth, etc.

IMO wait until done with school and a year of work as an RN. If your age reasonably permits.

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