New mother baby nurse to be ...would love some advice about what the hardships are.

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Most of my experience has been on med/surg although I floated occasionally to postpartum and have just been hired to work on a mother/baby unit. I'm so excited about this as OB nursing is why I wanted to become a nurse in the first place. I'd love some advice / thoughts on what you like about the field and what you dislike. After reading through a ton of posts I get the feeling it's really busy and fast paced but I think I'll be okay w/ that after working medsurg. Any medsurg turned OB nurses out there who can compare the two for me?

TIA!!:nurse:

Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Nice to hear how your day went, and glad it was a good one. :D

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I am a new grad as well and just coming off orientation on a mother/baby unit. I am very overwhelmed and anxious about being on my own. The biggest thing I worry about is teaching...my patients asking me questions and not knowing the answers. I have a lot of experience with older infants... but not newborns so their questions tend to throw me for a loop sometimes. Can anyone recommend any good sites for discharge teaching on mom and baby? Our hospital has standard guidelines to go over but I am always fielding questions that don't address their concerns. I have textbooks but would prefer something conscise that is pretty standard for most mothers to understand. I would appreciate any suggestions and insight!!!

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Specializes in OB, NICU, ICU telemetry tech.
I am so glad you had a wonderful day!!!! I hope and pray that you have many, many, many more just like them!!!! :yeah:

I start in my OB unit June 23rd and I can not wait!!!!!

Well, how was the first day? I'd love to hear how it's going for you!

Rachelle

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Specializes in Rural Health.
Well, how was the first day? I'd love to hear how it's going for you!

Rachelle

I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's everything I hoped, dreamed and wanted it to be. It's been incredibly amazing so far. :yeah:

The set up was a bit different than what I thought it was going to be but I can not imagine working anywhere else.

How is going for you now a few weeks into it?!??!!

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I like it a lot so far. I can't wait to get really efficient and quick with things though. I still feel slow even though my preceptor tells me I'm doing great after day 3 -which was today for me. Where I work we do all computer charting. I like this method b/c it's fast but I'm still getting used to which order to do things and what comes next. I'm not crazy about the current sheet I take my notes on for my patients. It's just not clicking with me so far. I think it's just a matter of getting used to. Everything else is great. We had a fresh s/p c/s today who was having some issues w/ bleeding. We spent a lot of time w/ her and were massaging her fundus all afternoon. The MD didn't order Methergine but told us to just continue w/ the massaging and watch her. Her BP and HR stayed WNL thankfully.

loving my job so far. :)

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Specializes in OB, NICU, ICU telemetry tech.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE it. It's everything I hoped, dreamed and wanted it to be. It's been incredibly amazing so far. :yeah:

The set up was a bit different than what I thought it was going to be but I can not imagine working anywhere else.

How is going for you now a few weeks into it?!??!!

I also love it... I find it the best thing I've done career-wise... I just love helping the new families learn their way, and I really love taking care of the brand new babies. I'm very much where I need to be!!!

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Specializes in OB, NICU, ICU telemetry tech.
I like it a lot so far. I can't wait to get really efficient and quick with things though. I still feel slow even though my preceptor tells me I'm doing great after day 3 -which was today for me. Where I work we do all computer charting. I like this method b/c it's fast but I'm still getting used to which order to do things and what comes next. I'm not crazy about the current sheet I take my notes on for my patients. It's just not clicking with me so far. I think it's just a matter of getting used to. Everything else is great. We had a fresh s/p c/s today who was having some issues w/ bleeding. We spent a lot of time w/ her and were massaging her fundus all afternoon. The MD didn't order Methergine but told us to just continue w/ the massaging and watch her. Her BP and HR stayed WNL thankfully.

loving my job so far. :)

Have you thought of making your own sheet? I've combined the one everyone uses, and added my own to make me feel more organized and it's working pretty good so far...I think you just have to tweak things to make them work for you.

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Well it's going so-so.

I have some nights where I feel like I am able to get everything done and then I have nights like last night where I was struggling all night to catch up. It all depends on the load that I get. 4 couplets can all be so different when you consider all the factors. I ended up staying till 9am charting. Crazy. Thought I was going to lose my mind!

I am feeling more comfortable fielding questions as I get to learn more from the experienced nurses. Just not so sure the pace is right for me. It's still causing me a lot of anxiety and now I'm getting migraines on top of that. How do ya'll deal with the stress?

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Specializes in OB, Cardiac.

i just started pp last wk (new grad). I really like it but feel it's a bit slow @ times & i like to be moving!

k, me venting: i got assigned w/ a preceptor that says she doesn't like to precept b/c she doesn't feel she's good @ teaching. She says she likes me, she just doesn't feel like she's great @ it. I could tell.At one point she asked what she's supposed to be teaching me anyhow. She's a great RN & I really like her. The next day, I was w/ another RN who LOVES teaching & was great @ it, it seems natural for her. Only problem is that she's assigned as a preceptor to another RN (has previous OB experience on another hospital). But, there are preceptors who have 2 RNs assigned to them. So i asked her if she would mind having 2 & she said she would love to take me on. I talked to the manager & now she says she's going to have a talk w/ the preceptor I was placed w/. I felt AWFUL when she said that!!!!!! I told her that I liked the one i was assigned to & she never said she hated teaching but jsut wasn't good @ that. my manager said she was really just going to tease her about it & not to worry. she then placed me w/ the preceptor i asked to be placed w/. I'm sure this is no biggie, i just hate for the 1st prec. to feel like i rated on her or something. i figured i'd rather be w/ someone who really enjoys prec. b/c that would make me a better nurse.-----sorry, i just had to get that off my chest. thanks for listening! :)

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Specializes in NICU, Mother/Baby.

hardships i deal with...

1. understaffing--having to care for an average of 5 moms with pp complications and about three babies who might have complications too

2. sorry uap's--having to check and recheck to see if something was done

3. trying to give adequate teaching to every mom in a short time( 2 days for rpp and 3 day for c/s)

4. language barriers--my patient population is about 98 percent hispanic

5. constantly getting scolded for not being breastfeeding advocates..when u have 5 patients there is no way possible to spend 30 to 45 minutes with each mom with breastfeeding issues..not to mention the lactation nurses leave at 5!!

all in all i love, love, love, mother/baby nursing..it has it's ups and downs but i personally think it is the best area of nursing...

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Specializes in Mother-Baby & Community/Public Health.

Hey Everyone!

I've read the previous postings and they were really comforting to read.

I'm a new nurse here, just passed the NCLEX 2 weeks ago and I got my dream job on a Mother-Baby unit. I was told that the ratio is about 1:5 to 1:6 (couplets) and that it gets pretty busy, that the nurses are on their "skates" the whole day shift. Anyhow, I start general hospital orientation next Monday and afterwards I will start the real orientation on my unit. I am so excited but nervous at the same time because I'm new and of course don't know everything there is to know about nursing and mother-baby (of course I'll never know everything). Anyhow, I am a lil' scared of the patient load and new moms asking me questions about things that I have no clue the answers are, but I am definately willing to learn from reading and learning from other experienced nurses on my unit and here on this thread. If you have any suggestions on books (I'm already going over my OB book back from school) that I should read, or if you have any other advice please relate any helpful info. Oh and if anyone can post what they use for their report sheet for both mother & baby, that would be awesome, thanks!

-KetuUCF:heartbeat

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Specializes in L&D, QI, Public Health.

My classic answer to a question I don't know the answer to is 'I can get that information for you'. or 'Let me doublecheck'.

You'll be fine. Don't be nervous. I'll sure you'll be great.

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