Types of Maternity Nursing?????

[Jordan1927, ASN, BSN]

Hi, this may be a stupid question but I have to ask. I'm in my last semester of nursing school and currently searching for jobs (in maternity). I've always known about L&D mostly, but a lot of applications I'm seeing are for mother/baby and postpartum nurses. So my question, what's the difference between mother/baby nursing and postpartum nursing? Thanks.

[ThatTallNurse, ADN, RN]

Usually if a job posting says “postpartum” then you are exclusively caring for moms postpartum and there are nursery nurses taking care of baby. “Mother/baby” implies you will be mom and baby’s nurse.

[Jordan1927, ASN, BSN]

1 hour ago, ThatTallNurse said:

Usually if a job posting says “postpartum” then you are exclusively caring for moms postpartum and there are nursery nurses taking care of baby. “Mother/baby” implies you will be mom and baby’s nurse.

Oooh ok ok. I'll definitely be sticking to mother/baby & L&D applications then. Thank you!!

[klone, MSN, RN]

As more hospitals are moving away from well newborn nurseries and into couplet care, "postpartum" more often means moms and babies both. I've worked at a dozen facilities for OB, and I've never worked anywhere where "postpartum" was just taking care of the moms, and not the babies as well. It's worth it to clarify when you apply or are interviewed, though.

[breadnroses]

I'm a postpartum nurse (who takes care of the moms and babies) and the vast majority of "postpartum" jobs I've seen are interchangeable with "mother/baby." Actually, I don't think I've seen any postpartum job postings where you just take care of the mother, but some probably still exist even though many babies are rooming in with moms now.

[ThatTallNurse, ADN, RN]

I wonder if this is a regional thing. Where I live, the “well baby” nursery is alive and well, and babies can and do room in with mom but it is common to send baby to nursery overnight and rooming in or not, baby has their own nurse. ?

[Kayla Ackert, BSN, RN]

ThatTallNurse where are you from? I find it interesting that the Mom and Baby each have their own nurse. That has been brought up where I am as well but isn’t going to happen. Is your hospital baby friendly accredited? Just wondering because I know we just went through that process. (Not saying I agree with all of it) but I’m just curious how other facilities run their units! Do the L&D nurses strictly do L&D or do they then resume the role of their postpartum nurse?

[ThatTallNurse, ADN, RN]

2 hours ago, Kayla Ackert said:

ThatTallNurse where are you from? I find it interesting that the Mom and Baby each have their own nurse. That has been brought up where I am as well but isn’t going to happen. Is your hospital baby friendly accredited? Just wondering because I know we just went through that process. (Not saying I agree with all of it) but I’m just curious how other facilities run their units! Do the L&D nurses strictly do L&D or do they then resume the role of their postpartum nurse?

I work in west Texas. We are not baby friendly and as a hospital full of "old school" nurses, I never hear good things about baby friendly. But I am a new nurse being taught by a bunch of ladies who have worked in maternity since before EFM was common practice!!! L&D is strictly L&D, we are strictly post, nursery is nursery, etc. Some nurses do float. Despite being an LVN I can float to NICU and nursery on top of my "home" in post.

[Idiosyncratic, BSN, RN]

In my old maternal child unit, I worked in "postpartum" technically. However, many of our staff also had mother/baby on their badges. So, just because it says mother/baby does not necessarily mean that you won't get babies. If your goal is labor and delivery, that would be a great stepping stone though! Most places prefer internal, and this would give you a start. ? I know my old hospital loved new grads.

[adventure_rn, MSN, NP]

There are also 'antepartum units,' where you monitor moms with high-risk pregnancies. I've known some NICU moms who lived in antepartum for several months prior to delivery. However, once the moms start actively laboring, they move to L&D.

If you're more interested in the baby-side, there are always NICUs, special care nurseries (, i.e. 'Level II NICUs', for kids who are too sick to stay with mom but too healthy for NICU), and well-baby/term nurseries (i.e. 'Level I Nurseries,' for kids who are well enough to be in mom-baby, but just get dropped off in the term nursery over short periods or time for various reasons).

You could also consider becoming a lactation consultant. However, it takes a while to become certified, and you need to have some background in breastfeeding support I have known plenty of mom-baby nurses (and a smaller handful of NICU nurses) who went into lactation.