When it comes to labor and delivery, doctors are not the only professionals to play a crucial role in the health and safety of the baby and his or her mother. Labor and delivery nurses also have significant roles to play in the delivery, as well as in the care of the newborn. In short, the nurses in the delivery room would assist the doctors during the delivery. Like all other health care providers, delivery room nurses also should have the proper education and training to perform their duty rightly inside the delivery room. To know more about the nurses in the delivery room, keep reading.

Who are these delivery room nurses?

The delivery room nurses are those health care professionals who work alongside the obstetricians, as well as other doctors in the delivery room. The primary role of these nurses is to help administer before and after delivery care. Thus, they would take care of the mothers and their babies during and after the delivery. By working with doctors, these nurses would create a personalized birthing plan for every mother. In this line, they would often involve in discussion with the mothers regarding the childbirth process, thereby offering guidance about what they should expect. After the delivery, these nurses would engage in patient education about newborns and how to provide care for them.

Now, look at the type of delivery room nurses

There are various types of delivery nurses. However, all of them would work as a part of a birthing team. The types of maternity nurses are as follows:

Antepartum or Before Birth Nurses: These are the medical professionals who care for the mothers and their unborn babies before and during the labor and delivery.

Scrub Nurses: These are the delivery room nurses who would work with doctors in the surgical procedures by preparing the operation rooms and assisting them in surgery. They would also help move the mothers to the recovery room post delivery.

Circulating Nurses: These are the nurses who would provide assistance in the operating rooms but from outside of the sterile area of the surgery. They would manage the care needed inside the surgery room.

Postpartum or After Birth Nurses: These are the medical professionals who would care for mothers and their newborns after the delivery.

Charge Nurses: These are the nursing supervisors who will be responsible for ensuring the safety of the nursing care being provided and to make sure that all the patients in the ward are provided with proper care.

Roles and Responsibilities of Delivery Room Nurses:

Let’s see in short about the roles and responsibilities of delivery room nurses here:

Patient Intake and Monitoring

When an expectant mother arrives at the care center, the delivery nurse would ask her a series of questions for the purpose of evaluating the condition of the mother and the unborn child. This way, the nurse would determine any potential complications at the earliest. Then, the delivery nurse would go ahead and monitor the heart rate of the fetus to ensure the health of the baby. In simple terms, the delivery room would be trained to manage both uncomplicated, as well as the complicated deliveries. Thus, as a delivery room nurse, you are more likely to handle complications like:

• Eclampsia
• Diabetes
• Prolapsed cord
• Malpresentation
• Ruptured uterus

Delivery Preparation:

Whenever the delivery nurse finds that the delivery is imminent, he or she would take the expectant mother to the delivery room and get her in proper position in the birthing bed. Herein, the nurse would continuously monitor the heart rate of the fetus and would be ready to catch the kid if delivery happens. During the delivery, the nurse would provide an extended support to the mother by adjusting her position on the birthing bed.

Delivery Assistance:

As mentioned earlier, the delivery room nurses would assist the doctors and nurse midwives in the delivery process. This would include supporting the baby’s head. The nurse would also involve in cleaning the baby’s mouth and nose with a bulb syringe. He or she would also make sure that baby is not wrapped around the neck of the fetus. As soon as the mother has delivered, the delivery room nurse would clamp and remove the cord. Then, the nurse would go ahead and clean the mother using a mixture of water and iodophor so as to prevent any kind of infection.

Remember, although all these activities would be performed by a delivery room nurse under the guidance of doctors and nurse midwives, they should be capable of performing these alone too. This is because there can be some emergency situations where these nurses will be left without any help. So, during an emergency birth in the absence of doctor or nurse midwife, the delivery room nurses have to capable of handling all the above activities.

Thus, being a delivery room nurse isn’t easy! But, if you can develop the love for your profession, we are sure you won’t regret being a delivery room nurse.