What would be reasons why someone didn't like L&D?

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Besides the obvious (a nurse who just isn't interested in this population), why would someone not want to do L&D if they originally thought they would be interested?

I apologize if this question is worded awkwardly...

The thing is, I can't think of one negative about the area, and I absolutely love pregnant women and babies. However, considering I've never worked with them in a nursing role (I have not and will not do an OB rotation) maybe there is an aspect that I'm not considering...

I am wondering, because as I get further in school (graduate in May) I really feel like I would be most at home in L&D.

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The facility, the staff, the pace of the unit, just to name a few. I too LOVE L&D..... but I love L&D in a birthing center atmosphere NOT in an enormous metropolitan hospital where every one is on pit and epidurals. You have to make sure you are at a facility that you are a good match with. Do not give up.... just do your homework so you do not get disappointed.

Good luck!!!

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I think you should give it a try. :up:

I have reasons why I am glad I'm not doing it anymore but I don't believe in being negative. Sort of like a pregnant woman being surrounded by women telling labor horror stories. How nice is that?

Best wishes! :D

steph

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Specializes in Rural Health.

Agree 100% RNKatrinaK. Do your homework.

While I love my JOB, I do not always love the inter-workings of the unit. I do not like that our OB's think that an epidural is required the day you get pregnant. I do not like that our doctors give a patient exactly 8 hours after being induced to have a baby - then it's off to be cut because they have a dinner date that night. I cringe to know that our C-section rate is well over 50% and our induction rate is 90%. I do not like that my coworkers flip any time someone wants a "natural" birth and they spend hours trying to talk them into epidurals and pain meds instead of trying to find positions of comfort for them. I don't agree with the continuos EFM that is "required" by my facility. I don't like that our patients can't have showers or tubs during their labor. I don't like that I have to tether my patients down to the bed with IV lines, IUPC's, FSE's, BP cuffs, Pulse Ox, epidurals and Foley caths. I cringe to know that "Pit to the max (ie, Pit to a C-section)" is a common term in my unit and one that is used often as an understanding among nurses and doctors. I could go on.........:D

As far as toxic co-workers......I wouldn't trade what I do for anything but I miss the cohesiveness between myself and my co-workers in the ER. Together we were a TEAM in L&D I'm basically left to fend for myself more times than not.

Please do not get me wrong, I LOVE my job, I really do. I love it so much it has fueled my passion to go back to school to become a CNM because I want and desire a different way to treat women during pregnancy and especially during labor.

If OB is what you love, go for it. Do lots of homework and find a place that will fuel your desires and keep you passionate about your job. Find a place that is supportive of you and the women and babies you serve.

Good luck!!!!!

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Specializes in OB L&D Mother/Baby.

I actually oriented to our unit at the same time as an older nurse that always thought she wanted to do OB... After our fetal monitoring course she quit and went back to med surg. I talked to her at great lengths about it and she basically said this.

1)She always thought Ob was a happy place to be and it just ended up NOT being like that... There are sad situations that you send baby's home to, then there are emergencies that may or may not have bad outcomes, there are fetal demises etc... She had a pretty rough delivery for a patient one night and although the baby was fine in the end, seeing that baby lifeless and being resposible for her was too much to handle.

2)Unit politics, docs, budgets, coworkers, etc

3)The liability and responsibility in general. We are a smaller unit, we triage our own pt's we have no doc in house. We do our own r/o labors, r/o rom, r/o basically everything... Then the docs are provided with our assessments and they make a poc depending on what WE say... That was too much for her also.

All in all I love my job also. There are certainly days that I wish didn't happen but overall it is a great place to work.

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Specializes in L&D.

I read the posts regarding this question and agree with the above. I have been an OB nurse for years at a Level III facility. I feel you need to understand that sadly we have little to do with mom's and babies. A busy L&D unit at a high risk facility is full of very sick women having babies, little or no prenatal care, drug addiction, etc. I have seen mothers and babies die. I have seen normal circumstances turn into disasters. None of this is to scare you but only to let you know that it is not all peaches and cream. Most days are rewarding. Other days are exhausting and sad. If you are looking for true interaction between moms and babies this would be better found on a post partum unit or perhaps a small hospital. Large centers are all about deliver the patient and move to the next. It is not uncommon to do three deliveries in a twelve hr. shift. Hope this helps give you a more complete picture.

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Specializes in CMSRN.

I do not work L&D. But I know why I do not want it.

There are happy times and there are sad. It would be too much of a roller coaster for me. Working Med-surg it is known that an admission means the person is sick. Most women come to have a baby and think they will leave with their new child in tow. If that is how it was all the time I would probably like it. But knowing that it can change any minute freaks me out.

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Specializes in student; help!.

These are basically the reason I won't even entertain the idea of L&D *unless* someone opened up a free-standing bith center. I'm having my second homebirth in Nov/Dec and it's precisely to avoid all of the interventions and aggressive tactics that are so common to hospital birth.

I won't support the mindset of treating laboring women as impending emergencies until proven otherwise; of restricting their movement; and using whatever half-truths necessary to get consent for "necessary" interventions to speed up what is not normally a rapid process. But I may be bitter. :wink2:

I know nurses who LOVE L&D and subvert their docs all the time, so I know it can be done. And with DD, I had an absolutely fantastic, wonderful, amazing nurse who supported my med-free plans and kept the doc out of my room as much as possible so I didn't end up in the OR. I don't think things for women will change without nurses like Faith, but I don't have the stomach for it, personally.

Good luck with whatever you decide! I hope you find the right fit wherever you end up.

Agree 100% RNKatrinaK. Do your homework.

While I love my JOB, I do not always love the inter-workings of the unit. I do not like that our OB's think that an epidural is required the day you get pregnant. I do not like that our doctors give a patient exactly 8 hours after being induced to have a baby - then it's off to be cut because they have a dinner date that night. I cringe to know that our C-section rate is well over 50% and our induction rate is 90%. I do not like that my coworkers flip any time someone wants a "natural" birth and they spend hours trying to talk them into epidurals and pain meds instead of trying to find positions of comfort for them. I don't agree with the continuos EFM that is "required" by my facility. I don't like that our patients can't have showers or tubs during their labor. I don't like that I have to tether my patients down to the bed with IV lines, IUPC's, FSE's, BP cuffs, Pulse Ox, epidurals and Foley caths. I cringe to know that "Pit to the max (ie, Pit to a C-section)" is a common term in my unit and one that is used often as an understanding among nurses and doctors. I could go on.........:D

As far as toxic co-workers......I wouldn't trade what I do for anything but I miss the cohesiveness between myself and my co-workers in the ER. Together we were a TEAM in L&D I'm basically left to fend for myself more times than not.

Please do not get me wrong, I LOVE my job, I really do. I love it so much it has fueled my passion to go back to school to become a CNM because I want and desire a different way to treat women during pregnancy and especially during labor.

If OB is what you love, go for it. Do lots of homework and find a place that will fuel your desires and keep you passionate about your job. Find a place that is supportive of you and the women and babies you serve.

Good luck!!!!!

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Specializes in Gyn Onc, OB, L&D, HH/Hospice/Palliative.

I had worked postpartum which I loved and didn't really like L and D so much. The facility I work in has a lg high-risk population, and I'm not an adrenaline junky, I like predictability ( as a rule, altho that is never the case in any unit), L & D is really a pregnant ER, pt's are fine one minute and crashing the next -either mom or baby or both. Not my forte. Also, I didn't like feeling subserviant to the attendings. The feeling of responsibility is awesome (and not in a good way). It takes at LEAST a year to feel somewhat competent and comfortable/capable, and I like to feel competent in my role. I loved the teamwork and general support by the other nurses tho. Some people just love it and can't imagine being anywhere else, every a$$ has a seat, it wasn't mine

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Specializes in OB/Neonatal, Med/Surg, Instructor.

See next page.....

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Specializes in OB/Neonatal, Med/Surg, Instructor.

I have worked L & D and/or nursery since graduating from nursing school (except for 2nd jobs in other areas) and I don't want to do anything else. It can be the most rewarding thing in the world to help a woman birth her baby, just too cool. I have known many folks over the years who would quit nursing if they were made to work in L & D because:

* Too gross, too much blood and body fluids

* lady partsl exams - have had a couple preceptees who couldn't get past that one

* Memory of traumatic childbirth too vivid

* Memory of partner's traumatic childbirth too vivid

* Couldn't deal with stillborns, miscarriages because of personal experience

What one of the PPs said is too true, some of the larger OB units are not fun places to work. I have found the small rural hospital to be a much better fit, even if we don't have docs in house (or housekeeping after 5pm), and practice like they did 10 years ago....we can get around physicians enough to help give the patients the experience they want. :nurse:

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Specializes in telemetry, med-surg, home health, psych.

I just want to tell all you wonderful OB nurses that one of you was the reason that I went back to school to become a nurse....

When I had my son many years ago, I did not want any drugs, my husband was absolutely of no use...he was watching a basketball game on the TV....this was long before men got involved (lamaze, classes, etc.) I had the most wonderful, caring nurse...she breathed with me and spent much time with me during my 12 hr. labor....I just adored her !!!! She made such a difference in my experience that has lasted a lifetime.....I still talk about her when talking about childbirth !!!

Thank you all you great OB nurses, You DO make a difference....

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