After graduating from nursing school, I worked on a Medsurg/Ortho unit. I learned most of my nursing skills working on Medsurg, especially nursing skills and time management. After working in Medsurg for 2 years, I switched specialties to mother-baby. Training for this specialty took approximately 6 weeks because of becoming accustomed to caring for newborns. Taking care of the mothers was not a tremendous change from Medsurg, as I was used to caring for adults.
The newborns were a different story. Vital signs ranges are completely different, for one. For example, a newborn with a blood sugar of 45 is perfectly normal, while it is dangerous for an adult. During these 6 weeks of training, I had to take a Neonatal Resuscitation Program (NRP) certification. This certification only applies to newborns less than a couple of months old. I had to learn new skills specific to newborns, such as car seat challenges, hearing screenings, jaundice screenings, and other newborn screenings. These 6 weeks of training were full of learning and adjusting, as mother-baby is a completely different world of nursing than I was used to.
The average annual pay for RNs, according to Salary.com, is estimated at $77,292 annually. The weekly pay is, on average, $1,486. While at Travel Nurses, Inc., the estimated weekly pay for a Postpartum nurse can range from $3,620 to $1,690 a week. As travel nurses, pay can be an enormous factor in your decision-making process.
A typical shift would start by getting reports and planning out my day. I would see who might be discharged that day and how many hours old the newborn was. Many of the tasks I would have to perform were time-dependent. We delayed bathing, so we would have to wait until the newborn was 12 hours old to give the bath. The PKU test (newborn screening) could not be performed until the newborn was 24 hours old, and at this time, the jaundice test and the hearing screen would be performed. If a newborn were born below a certain weight, we would have to perform a car seat screening to make sure the newborn was safe in their car seat for the ride home.
With all the time constraints around the newborn, most of my day revolved around those times. The vast majority of postpartum mothers were only on a stool softener and possibly iron, along with their pain medication, so this was a vast change from MedSurg, as your entire shift revolves around medication administration.
After looking at all the task times, I could do all my vital signs and assessments, chart them, and start getting discharge paperwork together. I would perform all the newborn tasks at scheduled times throughout the day while admitting new couplets, completing discharges, giving pain medication when mothers need it, and helping mothers breastfeed. Education was a huge aspect of this specialty, as there is so much to know about caring for a newborn. I provided a lot of breastfeeding education and assistance during my day. By the end of my shift, I could have cared for 6-7 different couplets (12-14 different patients to chart on) since patient turnover is high in this specialty (most moms stay between 24-48 hours post-delivery).
My favorite part of mother-baby nursing was helping educate mothers on breastfeeding. I would help moms who knew little to nothing about breastfeeding, and by the time of discharge, they felt confident in their ability to feed their babies. Breastfeeding is natural, but it doesn’t always come naturally to mothers and newborns. Some moms don’t expect to be met with such a challenge after their baby is born, which can be very frustrating. I loved giving them the support they needed to feel comfortable and confident breastfeeding their baby. Seeing a mother go from not knowing how to breastfeed to doing it independently was a favorite of mine.
Being a mother-baby nurse takes a lot of patience and empathy. Mothers are sleep-deprived, and their emotions are all over the place after giving birth because of hormonal changes. Many mothers experience postpartum baby blues due to this hormonal shift, so comforting them during this time is essential. As a result of sleep deprivation, nurses will be asked the same questions repeatedly, so patience is a must in this specialty. If a mother miscarries, you will be there for them on one of the worst days of their life. You will be a shoulder to cry on and an encouragement when they feel defeated. You will be there for mothers on their worst and best days and make a lasting impact on mothers and newborns. Every mother remembers the day their baby was born.
