Maternity Class

Nursing Students Male Students

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Any other guys hate maternity class? I feel like an alien in there - like I don't know what's going on at all. I've got a solid B, but the whole thing is so uninteresting to me that I'm having trouble forcing myself to study for it now that the end of the semester is here. I guess I'm not really looking for advice, just wondering whether or not this is common. There aren't many guys in my class.

Ironically, my girlfriend (soon-to-fiance) is going to be an OB/GYN. lmao.

I kinda felt like it was the significant others that had the problems more than the actual pts.

I am tall and muscular....None of the baby daddies wanted me in that room. My only success was someone who was there with her mom.

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Specializes in L&D, OBED, NICU, Lactation.
I hated maternity in both LVN and RN clinicals. Expect to not be allowed to witness some births... sometimes the pregnant mom doesn't want you there, other times it's the husband/father. Just don't take it personal. Witnessing c sections won't be an issue in my experience but seeing birth the old fashioned way was. When the woman says "no students" she usually means no male student. I was able to witness a lady partsl birth by being polite and asking if it would be okay for me to be with you throughout all of this. Expect rejection, but push forward and change patients. It's very common for us men.

Don't expect anything other than to be treated like any other nursing student. Just learn how to deal with things as they come/if they come. I don't get treated any differently on my unit when it comes to patient assignments or anything else. If something comes up where we need to switch we just do, but we don't anticipate things or ask if a male nurse is okay, that is setting the stage for the mindset that different=wrong. Talk to the instructor and the preceptor about how they are approaching patients, normally that is the issue.

I am tall and muscular....None of the baby daddies wanted me in that room. My only success was someone who was there with her mom.

I'm athletic and attractive, no one gives a flying crap. I walk in the room like I own the dang place. I make friends with the husbands/boyfriends/etc and get them involved. I can literally count on one hand the number of times I've been asked to leave in the past 3 years.

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I love the idea of not asking if a male nurse / student nurse would be okay. That really does open the door to "no.". My instructor would ask the couples if they were okay with a male nursing student and this no doubt played a huge role in me not getting much OB experience. I did have a female patient scream "get out" at me my first day in OB clinicals so I didn't exactly start off on a good foot. She didn't want a male student and didn't hold back.

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I am a RN who works on a OB/gyn floor and I get male students and all the time. The trick is I tell the patient that I have a smart and wonderful student who is eager to learn OB who will be with me all day, 99% of the time the agree. During report I also get a feel from the nurse leaving if they would have any issues with a male student. The only patients that the male students wont see is the muslim patients and they have no male sign on the door. Once its a busy day the students like it but i can imagine that this area would suck if you have no interest in the topic. We also have a make L&D nurse and everyone loves him!

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Having been through maternity and passed it I would say the material is boring no matter what your gender is. I hated learning about how the baby rotates out of the birth canal and all that stuff. But as a male nurse you should learn it. What if you have a pregnant woman in the ER and her water breaks? You need to know what to do to get the process started.

What if you are at a resort in Aruba? Take it seriously. Women give birth, and you could be the first or only responder.

And if you are given a chance: watch a C-section or lady partsl birth. My heart rate shot way up when I watched the C-section there were so many layers of tissue and a lot of blood being suctioned out. It went from tissue and a uterus hanging out and a baby being pulled out, to a neatly sewn scar with stitches that dissolve. And there was a male nurse anestetist in the room. Some of you might want to be one of those.

One more thing to add: the woman who's Csection I watched thanked me and told me I was very professional.

It's all about your personality and professionalism.

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Specializes in Emergency, Disaster Medicine, Search and Rescue.

I liked clinical way more than lecture. Lecture was like, "...And here are where your ovaries are..." And I'd be sitting there like, "...But, I don't have any ovaries."

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab..

I'm currently taking OB at my school. Honestly, asides from NICU, every other areas seems just slow and boring to me. Nevertheless, the lecture part is highly interesting and technical. Compared with Med-Surg, the content is more zeroed-in on the mom and baby, which makes it easier to study for me. Learning about the different prenatal exams(L/S ratio, amniocentesis,etc.), fetal development stages, it's all just really interesting to me and very important information.

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I recently finished my Maternity rotation. I ended up passing the exam, although I felt like I needed to put a lot of time into studying. A lot of my peers in our clinical rotation did not get to see a birth during L&D, but I really lucked out and was able to assist and witness my patient give birth. There were two clients on the unit, the one family was not comfortable with a male nursing student. Ended up working in my favor. I was actually able to perform a lot of skills and assisted in helping the nurse during delivery, so it all comes down to individual cases I guess. I 100% can say though I did notice people hesitate since I am a male nursing student, but for the most part I had a great Maternity Rotation experience.

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Specializes in Battlefield/Critical Care.

I can tell you your attitude and willingness to accept your fate makes a world of difference. In my LPN, I dreaded OB/Peds. I also did worse in them than all my other classes. Oddly enough, I became a pediatric home care vent nurse while completing my BSN. In my BSN program, I'm the only male in my cohort. I was hesitant about going back on the L&D/Mother-Baby floor this past year. I'm an ED and trauma type dude.

Everybody was super cool to me and the nurses just acted like it was no big deal. They never gave patients an open door to refuse me. "Good morning! My name is X and I have a student with me today." They let me introduce myself and because I have bedside experience, it just flowed. In fact, I actually enjoyed it! The fathers seemed relieved to have another dude around and mom's were very at ease.

Your ability to remain professional, personable, and not a creep (I.e. a former classmate that complimented a new mother's feet) will go a long way.

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It just annoys me that patients will probably discriminate against us, in the actual care model.

My motto is always the same: If you're well enough to exclude medical or nursing care based on sex, religion, or race, you're definitely well enough to go home!

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Specializes in Perioperative / RN Circulator.
On 3/30/2020 at 11:07 PM, Luke79AU said:

It just annoys me that patients will probably discriminate against us, in the actual care model.

My motto is always the same: If you're well enough to exclude medical or nursing care based on sex, religion, or race, you're definitely well enough to go home!

I loved my maternity clinical rotation, and considered trying to go into L&D nursing; but I think your last paragraph makes an invalid assumption, and one historically promoted by men: that uncomplicated pregnancy is a disease process. Most women deliver in hospital just in case complications develop, because they want access to anesthesia, and because it's the socially accepted way in our culture. Not because they aren't well enough to deliver at home.

In other situations it's more complicated but I'll leave it at this for now

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Specializes in Physiology, CM, consulting, nsg edu, LNC, COB.

One of my midwives with my first pregnancy was a guy. He was as awesome as all the rest of them. My then-husband was just sort of along for the ride and didn’t much care. (Yet another reason he eventually became an ex, LOL). 
You’ll love, hate, or be uninterested in pretty much every rotation. Good point by previous poster that you never know when you might come across an emergency, so learn what you can and stay open-minded. 

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