New OB Nurses, Grads and Students, Please Feel Free to post your questions here:

[SmilingBluEyes]

Mugwump had a great idea offering services to new grads as a mentor (thank you for that!)

So, I thought having a "sticky" for new grads, OB nurses, students, and others with questions who want to post these can do so here. We also seem to see many of the same questions over and over, so perhaps this would help serve as an ongoing discussion of common issues/questions we all seem to have on our minds. This could serve not just for those asking directly, but others who may be "lurking" and looking for information or considering a career in OB, newborn, GYN nursing, or midwifery, doula services, childbirth education, lactation consulting, or other related work.

So if any mod thinks this is a good idea, mind stickying this?

Let's give this a go and see how it works out. We have many potential "mentors" here among us who, I am sure, would LOVE to help a new nurse/midwife/doula or student on his or her way to a rewarding career. I know I would love to help out!

[Munch99]

i am having trouble deciding if i should become a nurse first (rn) and work at a gynecology office or if i should go straight to becoming a gynecologist! if anybody has any thoughts or tips please let me know!

thanks muchly!

[Iwannabeababynurse]

is a ob nurse the kind of nurse that helps in the nursery and helps delivers at a hospital??:)

[Iwannabeababynurse]

i only asked what i did because i'm wanting to be a baby nurse. and i wasn't for sure if that was a baby nurse was called.:)

[SCmomof3, RN]

I'm not sure if any nurses are actually reading this thread anymore. It may help to simply post ?s in a new thread. :)

[MIA-RN1, RN]

i am having trouble deciding if i should become a nurse first (rn) and work at a gynecology office or if i should go straight to becoming a gynecologist! if anybody has any thoughts or tips please let me know!

thanks muchly!

look at it this way:

doctors treat disease/illness.

nurses treat the human response to disease/illness.

which one sounds more interesting to you?

[MIA-RN1, RN]

is a ob nurse the kind of nurse that helps in the nursery and helps delivers at a hospital??:)

ob nursing encompasses labor, delivery and post-partum care. it can include the nursery as well.

i am not sure if it includes antepartum nursing such as at a doctor's office or in a clinic.

it sounds like you are interested in working with the newborns...if so, you might want to try postpartum nursing where you care for mother/baby couplets. where i work the nurses take turns working in the nursery too. you could also choose to specialize and work in a nicu with just the high-risk little ones.

[chuckc, BSN, RN]

i am having trouble deciding if i should become a nurse first (rn) and work at a gynecology office or if i should go straight to becoming a gynecologist! if anybody has any thoughts or tips please let me know!

thanks muchly!

please do not take offense to this but by the sound of your post you have no idea what either one of those careers is about. i was a medical assistant in an ob/gyn office before, now i am about to be an rn. it sounds as if the two can be compared, they can not. being an rn and being an m.d. are both wonderful but very different paths. please consult your college counselor regarding both options, research as much as possible. if you are just looking to work in a medical office, usually they hire medical assistants, not rns. make no mistake that a medical assistant and rn are not one in the same. you will find numerous posts on this subject! good luck to you on your future studies!:welcome:

[musicalnursynurse]

it's better to have a float than no nurse isn't it, our floats only work post partum, and we have a lot of availability (like me as I have a full time post in another hospital for the OR) SO I work every other week end.

I got in by chance on the float team and then by taking replacements untill I got a post. (unfortunalty the pull for OR was too great)

[dnw826]

Hi. I have a question. I have always wanted to be a L&D nurse, and eventually a midwife. I have shadowed in L&D and have three children of my own. I am a huge lactivist, and I am in the huge minority in all the places that I have lived by breastfeeding my children. At the last hospital I worked at, I did a lot of shadowing in the L&D unit (as well as where I delivered all of my children) and I was amazed how much bottle feeding was pressed on new mothers.

Luckily we had a lactation consultant that is new there and is a pretty good resource for encouraging breastfeeding-if you request her as soon as you deliver. But the nurses still insist on using pacifiers and giving bottles. I know that I would never do that, myself, as a nurse with a newborn, and I know that it is hard for me, personally, to understand elective bottlefeeding. Is it unethical to try to talk to your patients about breastfeeding? I would never force them to do something they do not want to do, so I don't mean forcefully.

I just know that most people are very staunchly pro-bottlefeeding, and I do not want a confrontation with my teacher in clinicals, or with other nurses on the floor. I know it seems like this rambling is not going anywhere, but are there any lactivists on here? How do you deal with it every (working)day?

[prmenrs, RN]

Often it's not a matter of being "staunchly" pro- or con- one thing of the other. There are so many other factors involved. Let me describe just one of them:

The hospital @ which I work sees probably 80% or more Hispanic families. Moms tend to be a little younger, not much, and most do not attend birthing classes (@ least as far as I can tell). They usually say they want to "breast and bottle" feed their babies, and when you try to get baby going right after delivery, they want a bottle because "I don't have no milk". Or, if the child is the least bit uncooperative (and some of them are pretty vocal about it), they may say, "S/He doesn't want me!!".

Extended female relatives are there in force, w/varying degrees of support. They're all worried that the babies will starve if not given 2 oz of formula w/in the 1st 24 hours. And, believe me, they DO expect to get the diaper bag w/the goodies in it that's provided by the formula companies.

And, don't forget, almost all babies and moms get discharged promptly after their minimal 24-48 hour stay. Nurses don't have a whole lot of time to educate and facilitate -- frequently in what is, @ best, lousy Spanish.

We have ONE lactation nurse. She is awesome. But, she is not there 24/7; and if staffing is short, she can and will be pulled. Then she has her assignment and lactation demands.

I can wind up spending a whole lot of my day bent in a awkward position (my 60 y/o fat body gets a little sore!) grabbing a perfect stranger's breast and trying to get a stubborn, screaming little newborn to realize he's supposed to like it. I know a fair amount of tricks, too. It still doesn't always work out. And, don't forget, I have 5 OR MORE other newborns to assess, Newborn Screens and hearing tests to do, and patient teaching to do and document, yada, yada.

(as a "by-the-way", I had a mom recently who was Hep C+, and who really wanted to breastfeed. Wouldn't you know she had cracked nipples?? Can we say ethical dilemma?)

I admire your passion, and, in a perfect world, ALL hospitals would carry the designation of "Baby Friendly", and baby formula would be reserved for babies for whom there are limited choices and/or special needs. I believe in it, I'm VERY pro-breastfeeding. I'm also a realist.

It's one thing to be "shadowing" and observing. It's another thing to have full responsibility for the assignment. Please, just keep that in mind, ok??

[VickyRN, MSN, DNP, RN]

Hi. I have a question. I have always wanted to be a L&D nurse, and eventually a midwife. I have shadowed in L&D and have three children of my own. I am a huge lactivist, and I am in the huge minority in all the places that I have lived by breastfeeding my children. At the last hospital I worked at, I did a lot of shadowing in the L&D unit (as well as where I delivered all of my children) and I was amazed how much bottle feeding was pressed on new mothers.

Luckily we had a lactation consultant that is new there and is a pretty good resource for encouraging breastfeeding-if you request her as soon as you deliver. But the nurses still insist on using pacifiers and giving bottles. I know that I would never do that, myself, as a nurse with a newborn, and I know that it is hard for me, personally, to understand elective bottlefeeding. Is it unethical to try to talk to your patients about breastfeeding? I would never force them to do something they do not want to do, so I don't mean forcefully.

I just know that most people are very staunchly pro-bottlefeeding, and I do not want a confrontation with my teacher in clinicals, or with other nurses on the floor. I know it seems like this rambling is not going anywhere, but are there any lactivists on here? How do you deal with it every (working)day?

Please don't let that one bad experience at that one hospital jade you. All hospitals are different. The huge teaching hospital in my area is very PRO-breastfeeding and employs SEVERAL lactation consultant RN's on staff (one recently traveled to Mexico for a few months to become fluent in Spanish and is an excellent resource with the new Hispanic mothers). They are working towards becoming an exclusively breastfeeding hospital (forget the term) with no pacifiers, no free formula sample kits, etc., on site. This hospital's policy is to actively promote breastfeeding. Most nursing instructors in my area are breastfeeding advocates. When I have my students on the postpartum floor, we encourage breastfeeding. If the mother has chosen to bottle-feed, then we support her. If the mother is not sure, then we promote breastfeeding. We also refer to the lactation specialists whenever possible, for backup.

[MIA-RN1, RN]

Hi. I have a question. I have always wanted to be a L&D nurse, and eventually a midwife. I have shadowed in L&D and have three children of my own. I am a huge lactivist, and I am in the huge minority in all the places that I have lived by breastfeeding my children. At the last hospital I worked at, I did a lot of shadowing in the L&D unit (as well as where I delivered all of my children) and I was amazed how much bottle feeding was pressed on new mothers.

Luckily we had a lactation consultant that is new there and is a pretty good resource for encouraging breastfeeding-if you request her as soon as you deliver. But the nurses still insist on using pacifiers and giving bottles. I know that I would never do that, myself, as a nurse with a newborn, and I know that it is hard for me, personally, to understand elective bottlefeeding. Is it unethical to try to talk to your patients about breastfeeding? I would never force them to do something they do not want to do, so I don't mean forcefully.

I just know that most people are very staunchly pro-bottlefeeding, and I do not want a confrontation with my teacher in clinicals, or with other nurses on the floor. I know it seems like this rambling is not going anywhere, but are there any lactivists on here? How do you deal with it every (working)day?

At my hospital, we have several lactation consultants who make rounds on all the moms who are breastfeeding and it really helps. We are certainly a pro-breastfeeding group but that doesn't mean that we are against the bottle. We have moms who choose to bottle feed for various reasons and thats ok too. I personally believe that breast is best but as a nurse, I cannot judge nor tell someone what to do. So I accept their decisions and help them get going with whichever method they choose. There are cultural differences, age differences, physiological differences that influence the mother's choices. As the nurse, I need to support and advocate for my patient even if I don't necessarily agree with her choice because it is her choice. I can ask her if she is breast or bottle but I can't tell her she should breastfeed. I can explain the benefits of breastfeeding if she is questioning but I can't approach a bottle-feeding mother and tell her she should breast feed.