How Did You Decide On L&d?? Please Help!!

feebebe23 · Aug 25, 2007

All I have ever done is OB.....and I can't see myself doing anything else.

I have seen nurses come in and think..."wow, I am going to help deliver babies all day" and when they realize what it's really all about hit the door running....so here's my advice

1. The majority of patients (where I have worked) are nice normal people who are happy to be there....

2. When things are bad....they are BAD...can you handle a pt who went for her regular dr. appt and theres no heartbeat?.....

3. You will receive cards and gifts from the nicest people telling you how wonderful you are....

4. You will care for people who no matter what you do will never be happy....

5. You will care for people who do not deserve the bad luck that has happened to them.....like a 28 week pre term delivery

6. You will hold little babies and wisper in there ear "join the military, get a scholorship....just get away from these crazy people as soon as you can...good luck little baby" and then send them home.

I have had people say that L&D would be boring because you do the same think all the time....this is not true. Everyday is different. Every birth is different...Although the number of medications I have to know about is signifigantly smaller than other units of the hospital.

When anyone gets pregnancy in this world....there is no pregnancy fairy that comes in and promises anyone that they will have the perfect, full term, healthy baby....this are the things that you have to be able to handle mentally to be a good OB RN.

ashtabella · Aug 25, 2007

thanks a lot for responding. I totally get what you mean about being prepared mentally for the tough emotional aspects of l&d. I have thought a lot about that. I do think that if someone has to be there to help families through those tragedies, I could do that job well. anybody else got any wisdom for me ???

NYCRN05 · Aug 26, 2007

I always knew I wanted to be an L&D nurse even before I became a nurse which just happened two years ago. I have been working on a very busy L&D unit for almost a year and a half and it's everything and nothing like what I expected. My best advice to you is...follow your heart and do what you love. GOOD LUCK!!!

CMCRN · Aug 26, 2007

I think we are all a little bit adrenilin junkies, the shift can go really bad really fast, you have to be able to which gears quickly and like it. I love a good crash with people who know what they are doing it is like a well orchestrated ballet.

I always wanted to do L&D, been doing it now for over 20 years.

ashtabella · Aug 27, 2007

I think we are all a little bit adrenilin junkies, the shift can go really bad really fast, you have to be able to which gears quickly and like it. I love a good crash with people who know what they are doing it is like a well orchestrated ballet.
I always wanted to do L&D, been doing it now for over 20 years.

OMG that sounds awesome! haha does that sound awful? I just mean that from what you all are describing, i think it sounds like something that would really suit me. so any advice on how to get into an L&D position straight out of nursing school? I know everybody says do medsurg first, but I think i would probably die of boredom on a medsurg floor so no thanks. I fully believe that I can do a great job without it. SO did anyone do any externships or anything before graduating? thanks!

justme1972 · Aug 27, 2007

All I have ever done is OB.....and I can't see myself doing anything else.
I have seen nurses come in and think..."wow, I am going to help deliver babies all day" and when they realize what it's really all about hit the door running....so here's my advice
1. The majority of patients (where I have worked) are nice normal people who are happy to be there....
2. When things are bad....they are BAD...can you handle a pt who went for her regular dr. appt and theres no heartbeat?.....
3. You will receive cards and gifts from the nicest people telling you how wonderful you are....
4. You will care for people who no matter what you do will never be happy....
5. You will care for people who do not deserve the bad luck that has happened to them.....like a 28 week pre term delivery
6. You will hold little babies and wisper in there ear "join the military, get a scholorship....just get away from these crazy people as soon as you can...good luck little baby" and then send them home.
I have had people say that L&D would be boring because you do the same think all the time....this is not true. Everyday is different. Every birth is different...Although the number of medications I have to know about is signifigantly smaller than other units of the hospital.
When anyone gets pregnancy in this world....there is no pregnancy fairy that comes in and promises anyone that they will have the perfect, full term, healthy baby....this are the things that you have to be able to handle mentally to be a good OB RN.

This needs to be in a textbook somewhere.

I had a friend a couple of years ago that had a baby via miscarriage at 5 months. It was a routine visit minus a heartbeat. They wanted to induce her immediately, and she felt this would be best...she said when she remembered pushing her baby out, she just cringed b/c she thought that was it.

She said she was amazed when she went to her room, and the nurse came in alone, and asked if she would like to hold her baby and name it...and it was her choice. She said she cried and nodded her head...she never, ever thought a hospital would be so thoughtful. She asked what would happened to the baby and they even suggested that there was a cemetary that had an area for "lost babies" and that funeral homes would do this at minimal cost. Again, this was something she didn't know existed and was very appreciative.

This hospital put a special wreath on the door that notified staff that the parents had lost their child...which I thought was a great idea. She stayed with her baby for the afternoon before saying goodbye and the hospital said they would give her names for arrangements.

She said it made a huge difference in her recovery...she now "knew" she had a baby, that the baby had died, and she knew where her baby was.

I thought what an amazing team of nurses to be so thoughtful and have a system in place to deal with what happens when things don't go right.

Iwannabeababynurse · Aug 27, 2007

when i was younger and up til i got out of high school i always wanted to be school teacher.but after high school i changed my mine.and after that for the longest time i never knew what i wanted to do with my life.but what help me to decide to try to become a ob nurse was seeing my nephew being born. it was the most amazing thing that i have ever seen.after seeing that i knew i wanted to be able to experience that over and over again.

NurseNora, BSN, RN · Aug 27, 2007

I never wanted to be anything but a nurse from the time I was a young child, but I didn't have any idea what type of nursing I would want. My mother used to say "I don't know why you think you want to be a nurse, you're not good with sick people." But I never changed my mind.

When I got in nursing school, I discovered that I really didn't like working with sick people and I was quite concerned about what I'd do when I graduated. I've never liked children and knew I'd hate pediatrics and figured I wouldn't like OB either since I'm not especially fond of babies either. Then I saw my first baby born and I felt like I'd come home. I knew then that that was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Thirty eight years later, I'm still doing it.

I never had children because I didn't want them. People seem surprized by this, but that's how it is. I enjoy working with women in labor, but never wanted to experience it first hand. People are also surprized that I'm not too fond of babies. If anyone at work sees me feeding or rocking a baby they call everyone to come look as it's so infrequent. I like fetuses very much though.

L&D is different all the time. You never know what you will come in to, or how the shift will end. You can sit around all night sharing "war stories" with the other staff when it's quiet, or you will be so busy you can't find time to empty your bladder. All in the same night. I don't need to develop a long term relationship with a patient. She comes in with an acute problem (labor), we deal with it, get her delivered and on to the next one. I don't want to take care of the same patient for a couple of weeks, I prefer the quick turn-over.

As others have mentioned, things can go bad in a heartbeat and all at once you have to shift from being laid back and reassuring to being save a life quick. When things go bad and the whole team comes together and functions exactly as they are supposed to, it's a wonderful feeling. I remember a mom who had an amniotic fluid embolism. Everyone fell in and did what needed to be done. Got the baby out within in 5 min of the arrest; while the code team was doing their thing, the OB team did a perimortum section. Mom died despite out best efforts--no matter how hard you work or how right processes go, sometimes it's just someone's time to go. Baby had 8/9 Apgars. I was proud to have been a part of that effort, although we all cried about it for some time.

OB has one of the highest rates of malpractice suits and gets the largest awards. You have to be aware of legal issues all the time, but you can't let that dictate your practice. I've seen good nurses lose their ability to do OB when they got too wierded out by the thought of a law suit. If you are involved in the care of a patient with a bad outcome, be prepared to be involved in a law suit, even if you did and documented everything perfectly.

Although I've worked in a few other areas of nursing (part time while I continued full time in L&D) and tried management, today I'm still a night shift bedside OB nurse and I love it. I now work in a small hospital and have to do PP as well as L&D and have learned to like babies up to 48 hours old. I'm old, but have no plans to retire anytime soon. I'll probably fall over dead in the middle of an exam when I'm 80 something, and that's OK with me.

ashtabella · Aug 29, 2007

I now work in a small hospital and have to do PP as well as L&D and have learned to like babies up to 48 hours old. QUOTE

hahaha well thats probably a good thing to learn! thanks a lot. that was a good post : )