If I'd only known....

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Specializes in Obstetrics, M/S, Family medicine.

i am currently a mother/baby nurse who will be transferring to labor and delivery in the next 6 months. i have learned a lot in mother/baby, one of those things being.... labor and delivery is very different than postpartum. i have been reading about antepartum procedures, fhm, perinatal conditions and labor, but i was wondering.... you labor and delivery nurses,

what do you wish you would've known (or studied) before going to labor and delivery?

what complications/issues/conditions do you see over and over in l&d?

thanks in advance! :D

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

Get hold of a couple books:

Perinatal Nursing By Simpkin et. al

Core Curriculum for Inpatient Obstetric Nursing

Susan Mattson

These books will help you so much and they are a wonderful reference.

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HI,

I am a Clinical Supervisor for a Critical Access Hospital. If you are not familiary with them, they are small rural facilities that have no more than 25-30 patients at a time. What this means is that I am the "third" nurse to ICU (I have been an ICU nurse for 16years) the 3rd nurse to Labor and ED. As I find my self in Labor and delivery alot, I wish I had studied all of the "what could go wrongs" first.....this would hone my nursing skills into that first with patients, and then kinda go backwards as the patient has a normal assessment. I have found that making sure all is well is the best place to start....if you are looking at a patient and everything looks great then you can go forward. I would reccomend studying potential crisis situations so you are not un prepared.

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