Labor and Delivery (L&D) Nurse Career GuideExplore the essential role of a Labor and Delivery (L&D) Nurse, encompassing key responsibilities, required education, and their impact on maternal and newborn care. Labor and Delivery Nurses are pivotal in supporting mothers and newborns through the birthing process, offering guidance, reassurance, and expert care during this transformative experience. This role is perfect for those who are compassionate, calm under pressure, and adept at providing both emotional support and medical care, ensuring the health and safety of both mother and child.

L&D Nurses work as main points of support for OBGYNs, monitoring of patient vitals, administering medication, and establishing a trusted line of communication with expectant mothers. Once a baby is born, the L&D Nurse acts as an informational resource to parents, to monitor neonatal vitals, to ensure the mother isn’t experiencing postpartum complications, and to make sure their patients are leaving their care as confident as possible.

During and after labor, you’ll assess the needs of parents and how you can help them. During labor, this means maintaining a clear line of communication so you can assist mothers through their contractions, providing whatever physical, emotional or medicinal support they need. Postpartum, this means helping them with any care questions or concerns they may have, and connecting them to resources they might require, like a lactation consultant. The better you’re able to communicate with your patients, the better you’ll anticipate and evaluate their needs, so make sure to prioritize this relationship from the moment an expectant mother enters your care and trusts you with their delivery.

As an L&D Nurse, your expertise is invaluable to new and expecting parents. It’s your job to make them feel as informed and prepared as possible for everything from labor and delivery to what to do once they walk out of those hospital doors. Be prepared to answer questions, validate emotions, and help birthing partners know how to best support their loved ones.

As a professional consistently in the room with expectant mothers, it’s on you to keep a close eye on vital signs, like the mother’s blood pressure, timing of contractions, and the baby’s heart rate.

Every mother’s birth plan and birth process will vary, which means that necessary treatment differs on a case by case basis. If an epidural is part of your patient’s birth plan, you’ll be in charge of administering it. If your patient’s birth ends up needing to be induced, you’ll provide them with the medication and support. In the event of a C-section, you’ll prep them for the procedure. In short, there are many factors that play a role in how you go about treating each patient, and it’s your job as an L&D Nurse to be prepared for and knowledgeable about all of them.

As experts in various labor and delivery experiences, L&D Nurses are constantly using what they learn to help their next patients. Because of this, L&D Nurses are some of the top innovators when it comes to finding new ways to accommodate the experience and health of laboring mothers and their children. Take a listen to our SEE YOU NOW Podcast episode “Empowering Childbirth” where Pioneer, MacArthur Fellow and Nurse Midwife Ruth Watson Lubic, EdD, RN, CNM, FAAN, FACNM, discusses her six decades of experience in nurse-midwifery and her groundbreaking experience opening the first freestanding birth center for low-income families in New York City.