Suzanna4

Oh boy, 40 minutes. That must seem like a lifetime, since OB doctors know that their chosen field of work is always textbook . Yes, I am only a nursing student, but I have also seen in my years as a doula, multiple nurses say a patient is complete, only to have an OB come in and say they are not. Were they mistaken? Or is it really possible for a cervix to go "backwards"? I don't know, but I wouldn't be to hard on yourself. Birth is a wildcard, and it's hard enough without co-workers telling you that you don't know what you are doing!

I am only a nursing student at this time, so I don't have any experience of my own yet (can't wait to though!) My aunt was an OB nurse for 25 years, and swears to the fact that she has seen women "go backwards" in dialation when they felt threatened or were scared. I find this idea fascinating, and am curious to see if other OB nurses have seen this. She told me in all the years she did this it occurred many times where 2 diff nurses gave the same assessment, only to find out on subsequent exam they were wrong. She thought it was part of "white coat syndrome".

I used to work in a HR dept of a hospital, and we had an RN (she had been working for us as an LPN) get pregnant during her last year of school. She delivered right after finals, and did really great. Like above posters said, you can't count on everything going so easily, but she was very diligent about taking good care of herself. Alot of family support was also a big part of her success. I think she took off six months after grad, but I don't think too many employers would find a small break anything to be concerned about, as many nurses took awhile off to take their exam and start job hunting. Good Luck with your decision, I know this mom really wanted to have her kids close together, and thought getting pregnant when she just started a new job would be even worse.

In our hospital, you will only find RN's working in L&D. It's a small hospital, so the delivery, postpartum and mom baby units are in the same area. What I do find strange is there are CNA's working there, but I am not sure exactly what they do.

I am a 34 year old mother of 4, and will start the core nursing classes in August, and finish in May. I have a Bachelor's degree so I had most of my pre-req's out of the way. I also plan on working as an LPN for a few years, and then going for an RN to work in L&D. I work right now as a birth doula, and LOVE it! I am worried about being gone all day, then needing to study all evening, and how my husband will handle the kids. We will see, I figure we can get through a nine month program without too much catastrophe! I am also nervous about studying again, it's been a long time since I was in college!

I also have a B.S. in Consumer Affairs, but starting an LPN program due to time constraints with 4 young children. When they reach the age that they don't need babysitters anymore, I am gonig on for my R.N., about 5 years. I have spoken to a few Nursing professors, and they assure me, getting my BSN after I finish my R.N., will not be difficult. The closest school for me to do that is 2 hours away, so that will be something I wait to do until my kids are mostly grown, and I can do that much traveling. I have a friend who has a BSN, and he thinks it is a good idea, because so much responsibility comes with the title. Not that all nurses don't have a lot of responsibility, but he has young children also, and is constantly stuck at work doing a lot of management type duties that take so much time away from his family.