Men in L&D

I remember my rotation in L&D and as a male, I was very welcomed and overall it was a very good experience. The nurses there said that they did once have a male nurse who worked there for many years and, although every now and then a patient would refuse care from him, he was well loved by the staff and patients alike.

Also, like you said, you may find many other areas that you find rewarding throughout your schooling. It seems to me that most men gravitate towards critical or emergency care.

Best of luck to you throughout nursing school!

I am trying to get into Nursing school and have thought that I would really like that as well. My wife shot it down. I am glad to hear I'm not the only one. So is that a realistic field for a male NURSE?

i've never understood why people balk at a male L&D nurse. when i was in OB rotations, the nurse brought it up that they used to have a male L&D nurse on the unit and the patient said, "OMG, letting a man see you with your legs open & check your cervix & everything? that's disgusting!!" Five min later her MALE ob/gyn came in, checked her cervix, palpated for landmarks, discussed an episiotomy..etc. she completely missed the irony.. :icon_roll

when you get into nursing school you really see everything as just a body part...seriously. just a part of the body..

We have men in our Maternal Special Care Unit, which is ICU for OB patients. I am a male PCA on L&D but my job is very dumbed down to starting IV's and drawing labs and transporting. We have female nurse extenders to do vitals etc. I have heard a rumor that my manager would never hire a male to work as a L&D nurse. She is a great manager. Just an older Jamaican lady who thinks her patients will have a problem. I see shy women come in who don't want you to see there butt, but the male OB can come in and check her cervix and bring in two ER rotators and 2 male medical students to watch the process. I think the reason we don't have male RNs on our unit is because they couldn't supervise their own patients with the MDs. No MD on my unit would perform an exam with out a female worker present to protect themselves.

No MD on my unit would perform an exam with out a female worker present to protect themselves.

Interesting perspective.

Men in L&D....I say why not? I send male nursing students to deliveries every semester. They don't get to check cervical progression (neither do the female students), but they do everything else.

I enjoyed my rotation in school playing with babies and stuff, that was the extent of it. I was well received by the staff and patients though. Overall, no thanks...

"No tots, no twats"

It all comes down to how receptive the unit's managment and staff are. It adds a bit of a nursing assignment ripple when a pt says no.

I think like most of the other males who have posted that there's nothing inherently wrong with choosing l&d if you can find a job but there may be better fits. That being said I enjoyed my rotation in nursing school and only had a single patient who refused me. In that situation it was entirely a cultural reason for that patient and while my instructor was actually angry I respected the patients choice. I work in pediatrics now in a critical care area and love it.

i will say that if a spouse has an issue with you in L&D, she may have an underlying issue that you need perhaps to address (obviously in a nonthreatening loving manner.) You are going to see naked women in nursing, period. In ER, OR, trauma, ICU, etc you will get all ages. Shoot male police officers & male EMTs deliver babies all the time (i know it's a little different cause it's an emergency but still, society doesnt seem to have a problem with it.) There's pretty much no way around it. My DH could care less that I see other naked men, he knows that it's just part of the job, you see it ALL the time. I'm not trying to belittle or demean your wife's feelings in any manner, i've just had classmates with spouses who couldnt get over the nudity & it's not wise to enter a career where your spouse isn't or feels like they can't be supportive. doesn't bode well. one in particular i anticipate she will not last long in the profession because her BF is jealous all the time.

my particular nursing class was very small & we only had 1 male (most groups have around 25% men) but he loved every minute of L&D. He even checked several cervixes (we're allowed to with our nurse & pts permission) & he said none of the patients or their spouses minded at all. He loved being surrounded by new life & he loves babies, i think he's considering L&D actually...

either way, best of luck to you!!

during my bsn program i had to change hospitals due to the male mds not wanting a male nurse in the room during delivery....

place i had worked for years as a medic than a nurse a nurse manager told me she would never allow a male nurse to work on her unit… needless to say upper management got wind of the statement and were very apologetic.. i had spent my early years delivering babies in the back of ambulances owned by this hospital as well as helping with deliveries in the er (sometimes in those days the doctors had to be called into the hospital and nature does not always wait)…

during my msn program a ob/gyn (who was male) knew me and i did my practicum in his office/hospital with his nurse practitioner and mid-wives: i did full exams, iuds, and deliveries. i had some patients not want to see me and i had many that i thought wouldn’t want to see me that would let me see them.

i was asked to consider working with them towards the end of my practicum.

no rhyme or reason but yep life as a male nurse can be a trip and it’s not always the patients.

Ha! A friend of mine is starting his career as an OB nurse next month! There seems to be a lot of shrugged shoulders and "so whats" going around regarding the topic. No one seems to care much that he is a guy doing L&D.

Personally, I think he is really cute when gets around all those pregnant mommies and new babies. :nuke: