Labor and Delivery Nursing

Labor and delivery nurses have to be caring, understandable, and non-judgmental. No matter what these nurses should display good judgment towards others and should always encourage them to do the right thing. One of the most important skills is to empathize intellectual skills quickly! Most L&D nurses tend to be good at multitasking and organized which is very important since this job pertains to human life. Another set of skills a L&D nurse must have is communication skills such as listening, proper language and note taking. As a nurse taking notes daily is a responsibility. When taking notes they have to be legible and understandable so other can read and comprehend them. Observational skills are also needed. Nurses should have to sense and ability to spot anything out of the ordinary. A way of learning these skills is to properly take notes while in medial/nursing school to enable observational and not taking

A neonatal nurse practitioner is in the medial career field; with this information, you know this job will always be needed. “Because nearly 40,000 low-birth- weight babies are born each year in the United States, there will continue to be a market for neonatal nurses.” (Career Focus) Research has shown that there has been an alarming decline in the

Robin Yates’s paper, “Pregnancy and Childbirth, The 1800’s vs. Now: What to Expect When You’re Not Expecting,” was filled with many clear points on the advancement of labor and medicine since the 1800s. This essay was filled with interesting and grabbing facts; however, the structure of the essay needs more support.

Nursing has always been in my life since the day I was born… literally. My Aunt, a labor and delivery nurse, was the one who basically helped my mother deliver me. The fact that my Aunt was lucky enough to be the one that was there for people on those special days fascinated me. As long as could remember I knew I wanted to do that and be the one to help and comfort so many through their highs and lows.

A baby was just born at 26 weeks gestation. Just over half the normal 40 weeks a baby should stay inside the mother. The baby is immediately whisked away and taken to be evaluated and prepared for a long journey ahead. Ever since I could remember babies and the nursery at the hospital have fascinated me. Whenever we would go visit a friend who had a baby, I would find myself peaking over the windows into the nursery. I have known for a while that working in the neonatal intensive care unit is what I want to pursue. Recently I have been looking into nurse practitioners and furthering my education beyond my BSN. Being able to care for these infants in the most critical stages of their life, and being able to provide them the support they need to survive outside the womb seems so satisfying . Neonatal nurse practitioners have years of education, deep history, detailed job description, high demands and some legal issues.

There is a wide range of what a Labor and Delivery Registered Nurse can provide, such as planning a care system, taking vitals, monitoring patients, teaching them to care for their newborn, performing tests, recording, and charting information about patients, helping deliver a baby, and consulting with staff; just to name a few.

There are very specific special certifications needed to become a labor and delivery nurse that are available through the National Certification Corporation (NCC). Labor and delivery nurses are RNs who provide care to women during and after pregnancy. They take care of newborns and work closely with patients’ families and other health care providers.

For hundred of years, women have wrestled with their womanhood, bodies, and what it means to be a woman in our society. Being a woman comes with a wonderful and empowering responsibility--giving birth. What sets us aside from other countries is that the process and expectations of giving birth has changed in our society; coming from midwifery, as it has always been since the early times, to hospitals where it is now expected to give birth at. Midwifery was a common practice in delivering babies in

In the past, in the United States the majority of women delivered at home with no anesthetics; women might have received assistance through a family doctor, including midwife care (Thomas, 2011). A radical change happened by the 1960s, when hospital childbirths had become the norm, the pain of the experience was reduced by epidural anesthesia controlled by a physician. Pregnant women received education on breastfeeding and other topics during their medical visits (Thomas, 2011).

Also, they can dispense medications with the agreement of a physician along with performing diagnostic procedures. This career requires numerous skills such as reading comprehension, active listening, collaborating well with others, active learning, good decision making and complex problem solving. All neonatal nurses have to have an empathetic understanding of the parents and other family members as well as a good understanding of the

Women have been fighting for the same rights and privileges of men for over a hundred years. The majority of these rights dealing with the basic autonomy of their own bodies and the right to make decisions about reproduction. The role of women has been seen as homemaker, caretaker, and ultimately Mother. Having children and raising children is often seen as the primary job of women in the home. However, in the early 20th century having a great number of children became a public health concern among women who were having multiple births. The number of women who died during childbirth in 1900 was six to nine in every 1000, while one in five children died within their first five years. (Achievements in Public Health, 2000) This was not seen as an epidemic, however, except by one woman, Margaret Sanger. Sanger believed that women deserved the right to choose and control their reproduction while offering safe methods of birth control. This paper examines the life of Margaret Sanger, provide information about the barriers she encounters during her work, and give insight to the contributions she has made to public health.

The idea of childbirth has been viewed in three peculiar ways: a social natural occurrence, as a passage to an early death, and in present times a medical procedure needed when having children. In the seventieth and eighteenth century childbirth was seen as a social celebration conducted by midwives, while in the nineteenth century fear of death arose due to an increase of maternal mortality rates. This time period also served as a transition time between the elimination of the midwife and the emergence of the physician. The transition was due to attitude changes and knowledge understanding. During the twentieth century, medical knowledge expanded and thus the idea of childbirth was medicalized into a medical procedure needed to have healthy children. Childbirth once seen as a natural phenomenon was now an event that needed medical attention by health facilitators at institutions of health. The ideas around childbirth developed based on the knowledge, cultural setting, mortality rates, and professionals available at the time. Based on these ideas it is easy to see how social and behavioral aspects influenced childbirth throughout the seventeenth, eighteenth, ninetieth and twentieth centuries. In addition, the communities’ views on childbirth were influenced by the development of public health infrastructure, public health policy advancement and how well public officials were able to disseminate information.

Pregnant woman had to decide whether to birth their child in a hospital with professional doctors or stay at home and to have a midwife look after them. At the beginning of 1900 88% of child births took place in hospitals (“The History Of Midwifery”); however that number slowly decreased as time went on. This is because many women began to choose natural childbirth and birth their child at home. The change could have occurred for many reasons; however the main deciding factor whether to birth the child at home or a hospital was money. Many families could not afford the medical costs to have their child delivered at a hospital.

Neonatal nursing is a specialty of nursing that works with newborn infants born with a variety of problems such as prematurity, birth defects, acid reflux, body malfunctions, and surgical problems. The requirements of becoming a neonatal nurse is having good communication with doctors, specialties, family members, administrators, etc. Some qualities are being fast analytical thinkers to make good choices, well-developed stress management skills, be flexible with different changes, and lastly pay attention to detail documentation. It’s a challenging job to treat patients with problems because you’re dealing with their health and family members. However, it’s a rewarding job because it plays a huge role in saving lives in babies and giving good news to the family.

On April 13, 2013, nursing became one of the, if not the most, important professions around the world. On that date, Disease-666, which caused the zombie apocalypse, broke out. It infected nearly three-fourths of the population, and nearly all doctors and scientists fell ill of the disease as they worked tirelessly trying to find a cure, leaving only nurses left. Besides hearing the stories of how important nursing has been the last couple years here at the Michigan State Safe Haven and outside of it, I conducted my own research on the field, more specifically, the field of midwife nursing. I found through many literacies that nurses are the primary caretakers of humans; providing care for the sick and unable, while also being the supporter during the emotional stress of recovery. Nursing earns the status of the most important profession during the apocalypse as they are the backbone of emotional support, they are the curators of repopulation, and they are the most certified people left to help turn the apocalypse around.