How did you do in O.B.?

The babies were fine. The fact you're taking care of someone else newborn child for the first couple of weeks made me paranoid I'd like break him/her in half. I think the breast feeding class (which are free if you say you are nursing student btw) came in very very very very very very handy when it came down to patient teaching, there were a lot of new mothers and by golly they needed patient teaching, well to the best of what 20 year old male student could do. I quickly noticed the girls were getting female patients while I was assigned to babies. Not that I really cared in the end, but what you think was happening was happening, I was not oblivious to the fact. I think I talked more with the secretaries more than actual nurses on that floor, the only one that bothered to talk to me was some out of hospital female doctor. My professor wasn't bad per say (she does this for a living outside of teaching), she did teach me a lot about taking care of babies (signs, what to watch out for, normal/abnormal etc) but I got very little interaction with female patients. L&D is fun, C/S are fun to watch, but not for the millionth time. What I wanted to see was lady partsl birthing, but it's not like you can ask the woman to do that LOL. Overall ... yeah ... I got through it.

I also spent most of that clinical rotation with babies. The nurses all were really nice to me, but most of the female pts were reluctant to have anything to do with a male nursing student. One family did allow me to observe a lady partsl birth--it was her and her husband's second kid so they felt more comfortable with the whole process.

The clinical instructor was one I'd previously had at a different facility and L/D wasn't her specialty, but she was supportive. The lecturers in both my LPN and RN programs were genuinely enthusiastic and showed no bias toward men. The one in my RN program actually said she wanted to convince at least one of us men to work in that area after graduating.

I hope you have a good experience when it's your turn. It's sad that there are still some closed-minded faculty out there. I was young and single like you and had no unexpected issues.

Like yourself I am a single man with no children. I had never even held an infant prior to my OB rotation. Deep down i was freaked out inside but you would of never known. I recieved i praise from the nurses and from my professor on how i conducted myself.

My first experience holding a child was while i was giving a bath demo. The family was so intent on learning the father video recorded me while i performed the bath. Trying to give them the best experience i could i gave as much information on the child's safety and temperature regulation during this process... The child did not cry during the bath however, he decided he would void all over my arm (only 30ml). To say the least my professor and I had a good laugh about it.

Your teacher should know this may be a difficult rotation for you and they should do there best to find you patients who are 100% comfortable with having a male caregiver.

The labor processes was nuts and It's something you have to see! The lady had a grade three rip and the child had a nuchal (sp?) chord x3 around his neck.... To say the least it was a interesting time!!

Have fun man and keep your chin up!

bummer that some of you didn't get a full rotation....I got to see EVERYTHING, multiple vag & c-sections, spent a few days in the newborn nursery, a few days in the NICU, even a couple days in postpartum doing pt discharge teachings and checking funduses (or fundi???) Don't get discouraged, go into with a positive outlook, and don't get offended if a pt doesn't want you in the room.....I was lucky enough to have a great instructor who always found something for me, even though I was never asked to leave by any of my patients. Good nursing staff helps too-the hospital where I was at had phenomenal L&D nurses.....Weird as it sounds, it was actually one of my favorite clinical rotations....the lecture - eh...kinda boring

The material is completely boring, you enter the course knowing that you have little to no interest in that niche, and you are asked to assess perineum's that look like they just went though WW3. My wife will be advised to go the c-section route. It's just part of the curriculum and you have to power through it. my 2 cents.

I too was nervous about this rotation, mostly due to things I had read here. Fortunately, I had a great clinical instructor and I can't explain to you how good the nurses treated all of us, including me. I spent my first day in L&D with a young patient and her boyfriend, but when the big event came I got booted out by the BF even though I had already observed the nurse put in a foley and after I left I heard he was sending cellphone pics to his homies. Other than that one incident, I didn't feel there was any difference between the way I was treated and the way my female classmates were treated. Although I won't be going into that area of nursing, it was a great experience.

BTW, the first lady partsl birth I saw was with a male L & D nurse. He was new to the unit and the first male they had there in at least 15 years.

I had a wonderful OB rotation. While it was kind of slow, I got to see a lady partsl birth my first day. (I missed the only C/S though). You will spend a lot of time with neonates, as previously stated, because women will feel uncomfortable with a male nurse. Honestly the babies are awesome. They are more fun than the moms. Search for videos on how to change a diaper and wrap a papoose!!! Practice on a football or something. You will need to do these vital tasks repeatedly.

By the time I did my first postpartum assessment with my instructor, the rest of the students (girls) were already going through them solo w/o a problem. It just took so long for me to get a willing pt. Smile and be nice to everyone. Ask unit nurses you are not assigned with to be on the look out for pt's who will accept a male caregiver. You want the unit to be behind you.

Women's health was hard for me because I just didn't know anything about periods. Or estrogen. Or tampons. Or any of that stuff. Prepare yourself for pt's with history of miscarriage, abuse, and drug addiction. You won't forget your first baby withdrawing from opiates.

OB is a wonderful, wonderful field because if all goes well. You get to see a family grow in a very unique way. When I saw my first birth, it was apparent that I just watched a family grow in a way that was entirely unique to anything else in healthcare. It is an extremely powerful (and joyous) moment.

Well I have had my first OB clinical now. It went okay but it was a slow day they didn't have many pt.'s I am looking forward to my next one though I will be in NICU. Thanks for your responses!

My rotations were great, instructor was terrible. The patients were always very nice to me and while it was not my area of interest, they made it fun

My OB rotation was a lot better than I expected. I would say my instructor was 95% comfortable with have males in her clinical group- there were about 3-4 of us in her group, actually. My rotation was at a large teaching hospital and was split between L&D, postpartum, and newborn nursery with one day spent taking care of an antepartum patient and one day spent shadowing in an outpatient prenatal clinic. For some reason, I spent the most time on postpartum, which was kind of boring- except when I was on the antepartum side (taking care of a high-risk patient). I loved L&D when I actually got to see and do things- I spent 3 shifts on that floor and my first shift I got to see a lady partsl birth, c-section and postpartum hemorrhage. The other two shifts were largely uneventful, but the nurses were more than willing to teach (FHR patterns were def. interesting) and answer any questions I had. I didn't like the newborn nursery- it was kind of terrifying because once I was in there, I didn't know exactly what to do first (in terms of assessment, tx, etc)- it was a foreign environment to me. I ended up just pairing up with one of the nursery RNs so that I could see what she did (and so she could direct the assessments I did). As far as gender bias, most of the patients didn't have a problem with me as a male nursing student. The few patients on L&D who did have a problem didn't want to have any students in the room in the first place- regardless of gender. I surmise that a greater proportion of L&D patients at private and community hospitals have problems with nursing students (esp. males)- due to demographic differences and the fact that when one goes to a private hospital one doesn't expect to have students taking care of them. Overall, I was quite satisfied with my OB/Maternity clinical rotation. OB nursing is an interesting and challenging specialty; I definitely learned a lot in that class.