RNKB18

I just started in L&D and am 2 months into training and I will say it is a-lot more stressful & less straight forward than I expected, complications and things not going according to plan happen every day and it is not happy the majority of the time as I expected it would be. There are a-lot more "demises" or dead babies than I expected and that is an extremely difficult assignment..I think both jobs would be really difficult and rewarding in their own ways. Can you shadow and see which feels like a better fit for you? Hope you find where you're meant to be!

Hi I'm looking for some advice! I am a nurse with 5 years of experience who recently switched floors to L&D. I am feeling really overwhelmed and discouraged. My nursing experience prior to this was 1.5 years on a pulonary/renal/med surg floor and 3.5 years on a chest pain/observation unit. I was told that this specialty takes a good 2 years to feel comfortable in my interview, but I'm feeling more overwhelmed with the amount of new information and never ending amount of documentation than I expected. To be quite honest its making me feel constantly stressed and so anxious, I go to bed thinking about work and wake up thinking about work. My "why" of going into this field was because I delivered both of my children at this hospital and I had such a great experience and wanted to be there for the moms like my nurses were for me, they were wonderful...but the job is honestly so much more stressful and tedious than I was prepared for, my preceptors tell me I am doing a great job but I don't feel like I am. My hospital has the new L&D nurses train for 12 weeks, I am 7 weeks into training. I was a charge nurse on my old floor and the go-to for questions and did my job well and felt like I knew what I was doing, but now I feel like a new grad all over again but its not fun at 32 years old.. Just looking for advice here? Should I stick it out? Is it normal to feel this way when switching specialties to L&D? I don't want to give up because I have put so much time and effort into learning and training for this new position but I just don't know if what I am feeling is normal or if this is a sign that it's not meant to be.