10 Things Your Labor Nurse Wants You to Know

hi YouTube so my name is Elizabeth I am a labor and delivery nurse and today I wanted to film a video about ten things your labor and delivery nurse wants you to know or wishes that you knew maybe before you came in so I'm just gonna go ahead and go through the list and I have one bonus one at the end it's a little bit silly but happens a lot so I have been a labor and delivery nurse in a postpartum nurse for the past almost five years since I graduated from nursing school so I have a lot of experience I would say with new moms and people who've never had babies before and all that good stuff and I was a new mom who'd never had a baby before obviously new mom never had a baby before and so I think that I can hopefully really speak to some people's worries and fears and just let them know some things and maybe give you guys a few laughs - so I have a list on my phone I'm going to be kind of referring to one number one you do not need to apologize I think most people like when they start getting real into active labor and they get gutteral and they get in the zone and they get really primal they want to apologize a lot or they want to apologize you know for not saying thank you or for cursing or anything like that and you do not need to apologize we know where you are we know what to expect we have signed up for this job if at the end you want to say hey sorry if I was going cuckoo bananas you can but don't feel like you need to stop yourself from being in the moment of laboring to apologize to your labor nurse you can be downright mean to us I always say as long as you don't kick me in the face we're good then I had a patient with an epidural accidentally lose her leg balance on a peanut ball and she kind of kicked me in the face and she was mortified and she was one who likes to apologize and she was apologizing a lot so that being said if it makes you feel better to apologize like apologize just don't feel like you have to apologize because you don't and we know what's going on we get where you're coming from you don't have to apologize number two is kind of a serious one that is really important do not hesitate if you are at home and you're worried about something do not hesitate to call your doctor most offices at least four I work have an answering line so you can reach the doctors after hours and that is literally their job is to answer your questions alleviate your fears or tell you to come in if something's going on we would rather have you call your doctor a hundred times and come in you know not because you haven't felt the baby move and find a heartbeat and everything be perfect I'd rather that happen a hundred times then for you not to call the one time because you don't want to bother anybody and then that's the time when you should have come in type of thing so that's really important to me and then number three kind of going off of that but do call your doctor first they're gonna tell you what they want you to do unless it's an emergency go ahead and give your doctor a call first even if you're gonna come in just to get them the heads up that you're coming and that way they can be here and be prepared in the hospital if for instance you get there and you want an epidural immediately like a lot of hospitals your doctor has to be there so things to think about okay so number four this kind of goes back to the not apologizing and just like you're in labor just like you might poop let me say it again really close you might poop you might you might not but you might poop when you're pushing and guess what we don't care and a good labor nurse will not say a word and we'll wipe it away and just go on like nothing's happen you are going to feel like you are pooping yourself the whole time epidural or not because your baby's head is literally right on top of where your rectum is and it's all that same pressure in fact a lot of times when people are fully dilated and ready to push especially if they do have an epidural and have the decreased sensation and everything they think they have to poop you just have to have a baby so give in to that feeling of pooping because that's what it feels like you're doing when you're pushing don't care if you poop I'm going to wipe it away I'm not say word you will not be able to tell it from my face we don't care if you poo in fact if you're pooping you're pushing well so go ahead and poop everywhere for all I care number five this is a big one and some labour nurses might not agree with everything that's on my list just depending on their practices but I think this is one that all of us will agree with are almost number one pet peeve of any labour nursing you ask is when you have a support person who is not paying attention you know on their phone for the whole delivery doesn't even smile when the baby's born just is not into it and that's different from being anxious and being nervous and having to sit down or you being in labor for a long time and your support person is sleeping this is a genuine not wanting to be there and if you don't want to be there then don't like let's get a somebody who's actually supportive to be here with this laboring mother who's working so hard to bring life into the world like don't sit there on your phone don't sit there don't bring video games to play don't sit there watching a football game ignoring your wife moaning in pain just don't do it it's not cool and if you guys don't know how to deal with a laboring woman take a class do some research look online this is your baby too so just say number six number six I think this what's important if you are on the monitor we're always watching you there might be some hospitals that don't have central monitoring but I would say most do everywhere that I have been and I have worked has sexual monitoring which means if you're on the monitor we are at the nurse's station watching you and if everything seems super normal and then all of a sudden five nurses come running into your room and start flipping and flopping you it's because we were watching you and things weren't going normal and your baby was having the deceleration its heartbeat and so your nurses are always watching you always prepared to jump in and act if need be and so even though you might feel like your nurse hasn't but in a little while this chances are at night she's gonna let you sleep as much as possible you know with turning and moving and offering labor support as needed but we are always watching so don't worry about that we are watching your baby number seven and this is one that I think old school and new school have do different thoughts on this and I think the new school these ideas are really coming around especially as women are getting more empowered in their birth we want you to ask questions I want you to voice your concerns I want you to tell me what you're thinking I want you to have a say in your labor because this is your labor I really enjoy explaining things I'm gonna get there and I'm gonna draw a diagram of a baby coming through the birth canal I want to do that for you I want you to know what's going on I never want you to feel scared even in an emergency situation when we're putting oxygen on and flipping and flopping there's chances are there's gonna be one nurse and it might not be your primary nurse there's gonna be a nurse saying okay this is what we're doing this is why we're doing it or afterwards if there's an emergency situation it's going to be explained to you and I I don't want people to feel like they can't ask questions or to ask questions would be rude because this is your body this is your baby you are have a right to have informed decision making processes and part of being informed is asking questions about things that you don't understand going off of that one number eight is that I think birth plans are awesome I think it's awesome if you go online and you research what you want and you take classes and you really get you know knowing what you want to do and this and that I think what's important once you have your birth plan all together you need to look at that birth plan and you need to be able to go through it with your doctor before you come in and see if there are things that the hospital will not be able to do for example our hospital does not allow labouring women to deliver in the tubs this isn't because we're mean and because we're against water births it's simply because our equipment cannot handle all the afterbirth and everything from a delivery in the tub it cost like thousands of dollars to clean the tub after that happens so you know obviously sometimes babies aren't in the tub by accident but we just can't allow it so if you have your heart set on a tub delivery on a water delivery you might want to research and figure out maybe you need to go to a birth center maybe you need to go with midwives like hospital births art for everyone and that's okay but knowing your research and making your birth plan and being knowledgeable about what you want but then also being knowledgeable about where you can do what you want are so important because I want everybody to have their ideal birth you know I want everything to go smoothly we all do that's our goal of Labor nurses is we want a happy and healthy mom and baby and part of being happy is getting the birth that you want and so knowing what you want and where you can go to get it are really important so talk with your doctor you know at your first appointment see what they can do and what they won't do and then maybe you decide to see a different provider and that's okay so something else to keep in mind with your birth plan is that it's okay if it's flexible it's okay if you get in there and you've never felt this pain before and you want an epidural it is okay to be flexible we want you to have this knowledge we want you to have this power behind it but if you want to change your mind in the moment it's okay your nurse is on your side if you ask us not to offer you pain medicine we won't but if you want an epidural just let us know that's what we're here for is for you to have your ideal birth and sometimes during your birth your ideal birth changes in your head and that's okay basically mostly what I'm saying is it's okay everything's okay number nine kind of goes off of that there is no one in that room who wants you to have a vaginal delivery as much as you do than your nurse I know there's been a lot of things in the media like oh my doctor made me have a c-section because he had a party to go to or something your nurse is not going to be like that we are there for our 12 hours we want you to have a vaginal delivery we want you to have your ideal birth but we want to have a vaginal delivery one because it's if the baby looks good it's healthier for the mom and the baby it's healthier for future pregnancies and if everything's going well and it maybe it's just taking a little bit of time your nurse is the one who at nighttime you know doesn't call the doctor to wake them up to ask them questions we just we let them sleep we let you labor we really we want you to have vaginal delivery and if I'm going to be frank and honest it's less work for us if you have a vaginal delivery and it's better for you and it's better for us so that's what we want your nurse is gonna be your advocate so tell them what you want and they're going to do their best to get it for you now obviously if there's an emergency if the baby's heart rate is down if something horrible happens we are gonna be the first ones to get you in the ER but we really want you to have a vaginal delivery and we are on your team we are part of your support system for 10 a heartfelt thank-you note is probably the best thing you can give your labor and delivery nurse you know when you go home and you're thinking gosh I really like I have a million things to do if you have time and you might not and that's okay but if you had a labor nurse who really put it on the line for you who really did a lot for you who got you that ideal delivery or who allowed some flexibility but still got you a healthy baby then write them a thank-you note we never say no to food but a heartfelt thank-you note really is amazing and it is so it's so meaningful and I keep every single thank-you note that I've ever gotten I have in a box in my room and one they're good for us for performance reviews you know just practically but to to know that you had an impact on somebody else's life and on the birth of another human being is amazing I mean it's why we do what we do so when you let us know a few weeks down the line that you're still thinking of us and all that we did for you like that's amazing and we really appreciate it my last thing that we want people to know and this is the silly one when your baby's born and it's doing skin-to-skin with you and it's so beautiful and it's amazing we have not wait your baby I don't know how much your baby weighs that's like always somebody's question how much does it weigh well it's on it's on your chest I don't have a scale on it and that's okay let your baby stay on your chest do your skin to skin for in your hours or two hours the weight can wait it's not that important it seems important because that's when everybody wants to know when you're calling and texting family but you had a healthy beautiful baby and we want to start a beautiful breastfeeding relationship or even if we don't you want to bond with that kiddo leave them on your chest will him eventually I don't know the weight the second is born if I did I would do really well fishing competitions where you have to guess the fish weight but I don't anyway those are my 10 things that your labor nurse wishes that you knew comment down below if you're expecting and if any of these tips were helpful or if any of these tips kind of helped you look back on your experience a little bit better thanks so much for watching bye guys

Channel: Nurse Zabe

Views: 2,660,594

Rating: 4.9625092 out of 5

Keywords: Nursing, Nurse, Rn, Labor and delivery, L&D nurse, Labor, Giving birth, Hippa, Providing care, Doula, Birth plan, Bsn, My labor and delivery story, Breastfeeding, Extended breastfeeding, Breast is best, Fed is best

Id: ClSyA4XDJRc

Length: 13min 39sec (819 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 24 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/caitie126]

Her voice and mannerisms are straight up Drew Barrymore.

[u/YOUREABOT]

i want u as my labor nurse!!

[u/FromZooToTwo]

I watched this a few days ago as I was curious what the "other side" thinks. Definitely informative for first timers!

[u/gialush]

I watched this last night and it was really insightful! I hope my labor/ delivery nurse is just as helpful!

[u/dyvrom]

Without watching, the poop emoji hits home 😂

[u/ccarmel]

TIC because of this video? Why... explain yourself hormones!

[u/Aquuna]

I watched this last night! I wish she was my nurse!

[u/roseajack]

Labor nurse here. Agree 1000%

[u/mrstimm]

Thank you for sharing that! I loved it and thought it was very informative even though this is round 3 for me. The only one that left me kind of scratching my head was when she talked about having an unsupportive support person. I can see how that would be super annoying for the nurses and the mom, but what exactly would you do about it at that point? She mentions that you shouldn’t be playing video games?! Do husbands do that and live through the experience? Yeah I’m pretty sure even with my epidural I would have found a way to unplug it and smash it to bits. Maybe it’s just helpful to know your ld nurse would bring you a hammer and not ask any questions. lol. But with my other 2 labors all my nurses were beyond amazing. I don’t know what these ladies get paid, but it’s not enough. They are angels on earth.