seemerun

It's hard to say without getting a feel for how the unit as a whole runs but that seems like overkill to me too. Here, whoever has been laboring with the patient stays as the mom nurse. Our team lead comes as baby is crowning to transition baby. RT and NICU only come for a bad strip, forceps/vacuum, preemie, shoulder dystocia etc. if its a C/S, then the nurse assigned to the patient is circulator, the team lead nurse is extra hands in the OR to assist with spinal, place foley, do the scrub etc. NICU and RT are always there until 5 minute APGARS. If baby is fine they leave and baby care goes to a post-partum nurse or the team lead if post-partum is unable to attend.

I don't know what a STAN monitor is? Sorry,still relatively new to this specialty. :-) There always what ifs. I mean we have crashed a patient before and then had 9/9 APGARS, but obviously that's a whole lot better than "what if" we had done this section 2 hours ago urgently but emergently, instead of going round and round with the unpredictable labor and having a poor outcome.

Before I started in Labor and Delivery I pictured myself being the nurse who was an advocate for natural labors and not rushing to c/s. But reality is...different. Maybe my view is tainted by my work experience. I love where I work but it is a large tertiary care center with the highest level NICU. So we get all the high risk patients. Anyway, my tolerance for sitting on sketchy looking strips is becoming quite low. There seems to be a theme - I notice it more with a particular provider but I know he's not the only one. There is all this pressure to reduce the c/s rate. So basically he won't section unless it is a category 3 tracing and this is crazy to me. With a lot of patients you can see the writing on the wall pretty early. I can understand wanting to give mom the benefit of the doubt, but waiting UNTIL it's an true emergency seems so risky. I am tired of seeing babies born with APGARS of 2/4 and having to go on cooling protocol. :-( Whats your comfort level?

We always keep at the bedside throughout the labor and delivery - 800mcg cytotec, 500cc of pitocin, terbutaline and lidocaine.

I have been on nights almost 2 years. Started on 8's and changed to 12's in January. It seems so much easier on 12's - I am more tied when I come home so i get to sleep sooner and the fewer days at work seemed to help too. But since summer started my sleep pattern has been really messed up. Can't get my usual six hours of sleep for the life of me! Also can't seem to get back on a day shift very easily during my time off. Not sure what the problem is? I still go right to bed (even though I want to play in the sun!) and I have a room in the basement so I don't think it's an issue of too much light coming in.

I definitely would not. A) I hate watches. I mean I like the way they look but I don't like the way they feel and I never remember to look at them anyway. I just use the clocks in the room - they show the seconds. B) 300 is expensive for a watch! I mean its fine - people spend that on other stuff - a tattoo, boots whatever. But it's a good chunk of change and I would feel a little awkward wearing it. C) I work in L&D and I envision water breaking during an exam. :-) yuck! Yes, I know - you could wear it on your other arm or whatever but it's still a funny gross visual...

I have been a nurse for 10 years and I can say that I am proud! I mean it is definitely "just a job" many days. I get tired of the BS and tired of being tired. But I worked really hard to get here, I am glad I went down this path. My job is interesting to me and interesting to others. When I get an easy patient I enjoy those moments. When I get a tough patient or tough situation....well it sucks but they often make great stories later. I have gone through periods where I wanted out but try as I might I can't think of anything else that holds my interest AND pays the bills.

Thank you all! Every birth is different and a slightly new experience. But I feel a lot better about things. Sorry L&DRegisteredNurse! That was my morning yesterday too. :-(

Well that helps a little. I hadn't thought about that. That wasn't an issue, but obviously it COULD have become one.

One placenta/2 sacs

I think you can hate med-surg and yet do really well in L&D. However, in my experience you will need recent hospital experience before being considered for any L&D position. I applied for what felt like a thousand positions but it wasn't until I sucked it up, took a med-surg hospital position for a year and half that I was able to transfer onto the unit. The two floors are very very different but I can see why my time in med-surg was helpful. I got re-acclimated to the hospital nursing culture, fine tuned my multi-tasking ability and assessment skills, and brushed up on things like communicating with doctors, processing orders - stuff that I didn't do much of when working outside of the hospital.

So glad you got on! I was going to pipe in and say there's really nothing special about PP. Except for the fact that it is low turnover so not as many openings. Plus, it's a fairly "desireable" unit so when the openings do come up there's lots of competition. But I am glad you there! I FINALLY started L&D about six months after years of trying and I love it too. It's intense, I feel like a new grad all over again and there is just so so much to learn. But I look forward to being there and I don't have that I don't want to go to work tonight" like I used to. :-)

I had my first twins experience and I have to say I didn't like it much. Once A was born everybody immediately were all over mom. Hands up inside feeling for presentation (mind you no epidural) pushing on her tummy to make baby "descend". Then when a shoulder presentation was identified it was immediately section. It was basically treated as a crash even though baby looked fine on the monitor. I am not a crunchy granola type at all but even I didn't understand why if baby was stable, everybody couldn't chill the heck out for a few minutes, see how baby B descended on their own (without the pushing and torquing on the tummy) maybe let mom hold and bond with the first one for a few minutes. It just seemed so needlessly chaotic and I am sure scary for mom and dad.

It seems they are most often planned sections. But if A) is head down they can attempt lady partslly. They are required to push in the OR to expedite a c-section for baby B if they don't come head first. They are not allowed to try for lady partsl for any more than 2 in there.

They go to our antepartum wing til mag therapy is complete