Description
Provide specialized nursing care to pregnant patients during antepartum, intrapartum, and immediate postpartum periods. Assess maternal and fetal status, implement and adjust labor and delivery care plans, assist with vaginal and cesarean births, and maintain comprehensive perinatal records. Educate and support families on childbirth, postpartum recovery, and newborn care. Collaborate with the obstetric team and respond to obstetric emergencies. RN licensure required.
- • Maintain accurate, detailed labor, delivery, and postpartum documentation, including fetal monitoring tracings.
- • Continuously monitor, record, and report maternal vital signs, fetal heart tones, and uterine activity.
- • Perform focused maternal-fetal assessments and evaluate labor progress; perform cervical exams if credentialed.
- • Triage incoming obstetric patients and prioritize care based on acuity.
- • Develop, implement, and modify individualized labor and postpartum care plans.
- • Administer prescribed medications (e.g., oxytocin, magnesium sulfate, antibiotics, uterotonics, tocolytics) and monitor responses and side effects.
- • Start and manage IV lines, fluids, and infusions; obtain blood products per protocol.
- • Assist with pain management, including nonpharmacologic measures and coordination of epidural/spinal anesthesia; monitor post-anesthesia status.
- • Prepare patients and rooms for labor, induction/augmentation, and obstetric procedures.
- • Assist with vaginal deliveries and support the second and third stages of labor.
- • Prepare for and assist during cesarean sections and other operative obstetric procedures, maintaining aseptic technique.
- • Interpret electronic fetal monitoring and promptly notify providers of concerning patterns.
- • Recognize and respond to obstetric emergencies (e.g., postpartum hemorrhage, preeclampsia/eclampsia, shoulder dystocia, cord prolapse) and activate protocols.
- • Provide immediate newborn care and stabilization per guidelines; obtain Apgar scores and measurements; facilitate skin-to-skin.
- • Collect specimens and perform point-of-care tests; obtain and communicate results of ordered labs and diagnostics.
- • Monitor intake/output, pain, mobility, and recovery in the immediate postpartum period; perform fundal and lochia assessments.
- • Educate patients and families on labor, postpartum recovery, warning signs, newborn care, and breastfeeding; facilitate lactation support.
- • Collaborate with obstetricians, midwives, anesthesiologists, pediatric/NICU teams, and ancillary staff to coordinate care.
- • Maintain and manage equipment and supplies (EFM, infusion pumps, neonatal warmers); ensure readiness of emergency carts and medications.
- • Adhere to and reinforce infection prevention, maternal-fetal safety, and medication administration protocols.
- • Precept and direct support staff and students as assigned.
- • Participate in perinatal safety drills, quality improvement initiatives, and data collection to improve outcomes.
- • Coordinate patient discharges and referrals to community resources, lactation services, or social services as needed.
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
