10 pregnant RN's...

[dbscandy]

...walk into a bar. Sounds like the start of a good joke, but I'm not kidding!! In our 51-bed NICU, there are ten pregnant ladies, all due between June 1 and January 1. We have a bunch of fertile myrtles, some young new brides, others old hands at this with two or three kids already, but all healthy and happy so far. The ultrasound pics are flying all over!

I just think it must be scary as anything to be pregnant and work day after day in the NICU. You must wake up every morning and just thank God the kid's still in there, heart beating (on all four chambers), internal organs INSIDE the body, a brain in the head (but not too much of a head), only 20 fingers and toes and they're all on the correct appendages, and oh yeah, that pesky cervix is still closed!

Well, more power to them, and we oldies who are closed for business can count on some great OT between now and Christmas!! YAY!!

If you have similar stories, let's hear them, and I'll keep ya' posted on our progress. :typing

[bethin]

Wow, don't drink the water there if you don't want to get pregnant and do drink the water if you do.

Scary for the pregnant nurses, and I bet the manager is scared too!

[HisTreasure, BSN, RN]

Wow, don't drink the water there if you don't want to get pregnant and do drink the water if you do.

Scary for the pregnant nurses, and I bet the manager is scared too!

Seriously. Don't. Drink. The. Water. Or there will be 21 pregnant nurses. That's a promise. :) Pregnancy is an infectious disease. They don't tell you that in nursing school because procreation is necessary...but trust me, I know. Kiddo #4 was nosocomial impregnation. :) Think it's a game if you want to...don't blame me when the second line shows up.

[Kunzieo]

Pregnancy is an infectious disease. They don't tell you that in nursing school because procreation is necessary...but trust me, I know. Kiddo #4 was nosocomial impregnation. :)

Bwahahaha!

[nursecave]

"I just think it must be scary as anything to be pregnant and work day after day in the NICU."

I had my children while I worked Mother Baby. That was bad enough. We deliver around 7,000 babies per year, and so there were plenty of horror stories to be heard and sometimes experienced. I now work NICU, and one of our nurses had her baby at 24 weeks. Super Scary! Thank God that little Reagan has done remarkably well. No bleeds, no NEC, only a PDA ligation and reflux, which in the grand scheme is wonderful! There was a chance she was going to have to have her eyes worked on, but they improved on the follow up visit and ROP is no longer a real threat. Her 36 week cranial ultrasound was normal. She is such a remarkable little girl.:redbeatheHer mother and father have been such troopers through all of this. I can't imagine knowing what I know now about the typical 24 weekers course in the NICU and having the grace and peace that my co-worker and her husband have had. Reagan gets her remarkableness from her Mom and Dad!

[Jolie, BSN]

I think high pregnancy rates are an occupational hazard of NICU/L&D/mother-baby nursing. Those clinical areas seem to attract staff of childbearing age.

I worked in a small LDRP unit with a level II nursery that had about 35 staff members total. During one year we had 8 pregnant nurses. That was tough on staffing!

I had 9 years of NICU experience before I had my babies, with whom I spent 11 & 14 weeks respectively on bedrest for PTL. You bet my butt was glued to the couch. I knew everything that could go wrong. I spared hubby most of that information, so he was happily oblivious, but I breathed a huge sigh of relief to get to 36 weeks!

[jessiern, BSN, RN]

Do we work at the same hospital? Right now we have 8 preg nurses--and only one little boy expected out of the bunch!

Also, there are 14 new grandma's to be in the next 6 months (and our administrator is to be a grandpa).

I got married in Oct, and every is asking me when I'm joining the club.

[BlueRidgeHomeRN]

also, there are 14 new grandma's to be in the next 6 months (and our administrator is to be a grandpa).

trust me, i enjoyed being an expectant grandma much more than being an expectant momma!!!!!:bowingpur

[TigerGalLE, BSN, RN]

There are 7 pregnant nurses on my med-surg floor.... pretty scary

[CHATSDALE]

in a nicu area it wouldn't be a problem like in some other areas

once we had three expecties and no aide patients required turning and getting up for breakfast

they called a nurse from down stairs to come and give them a hand over and over again all night and into the morning

when they came to work the next night a supervisor was there, told them that they would have to work out a schedule between themselves so that they could continue to work and not take any chances harming baby and not be a burden on other nurses

one of the nurses was sent to another floor for that night they were really miffed and threatened to claim discrimination but nothing came of it to my knowledge

[bagladyrn, RN]

trust me, i enjoyed being an expectant grandma much more than being an expectant momma!!!!!:bowingpur

you're right on this one! you still get all the fun part (buying cute outfits, cuddling baby) but none of the aches, pains and sleepless nights.

sounds like i won't have any problem finding a fl contract this coming winter......

[pagandeva2000, LPN]

Don't drink the water, don't breathe the air, run, run, run (but not into isolation, because it can be tempting to call hubby and make a baby there!)

When I was pregnant with my son 22 years ago (I am telling my age), as a CNA at a psych ward, 3 other aides were pregnant on my floor as well. We all had our children within the same week and took just about the same amount of time off. For awhile, we used to give each other gifts for our children, because we called them brothers and sisters. I wonder how those women are doing, now...

Wow...shocking, huh??