What does a Postpartum nurse do?

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Hello -

I am a new grad looking, ideally, for an L&D position. However, it looks like I am about to be offered a postpartum job with the promise to be moved to L&D once I have some experience. I'm totally up for it, but don't know a lot about what a postpartum job entails.

I would love to hear from a postpartum nurse about what their job duties are, what shifts are like, etc, especially on the night shift. I know that hospitals differ, but do the postpartum nurses usually staff the well baby nursery? If there are lactation consultants on staff, do the nurses still help out with breastfeeding?

Any info would be so appreciated!

Thanks.

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Bump. I'm about to start a mom/baby externship and would love to hear what experienced nurses have to say. :o

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Specializes in school nursing; pediatrics.

I'm not an RN yet - just finished Block 3 which included L&D and postpartum clinical rotations.

My hospital had "couplet care," which means the mom & baby room together - there is no nursery to send baby off to.

Our day would start with mom & baby assessments. Mom gets all of the typical postpartum checks (fundus, lochia, breasts, episiotomy, output, etc.). Baby gets a full head-to-toe assessment (too cute!!). Even though there are lactation specialists available, the RN definitely educated and assisted with breast feeding. The RNs will help mom with baby's latching on to the nipple. Having bottle fed both of my kids, I was surprised at how challenging breast feeding is at first! The babies are very sleepy and don't really know how to coordinate the "suck, swallow, breathe" thing yet. At times, it was very frustrating for the moms (who are very emotional/hormonal anyway!). The RNs were all very knowledgeable about breast feeding. The RN I shadowed actually subs sometimes for the lactation consultant. (Not really sure if there are breast feeding educational courses for new grads.)

The rest of the day consisted of pain assessments for moms (especially since my patients were post C-sections), making sure babies were feeding enough, and cheerleading for moms. You have to be very supportive as they are very hormonal.

I found postpartum much more enjoyable than L&D. Hope you find this info helpful & lots of luck to you.

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