Have you ever wondered what it is like for an obstetrician or labor nurse to have her baby? Last night on call, one of the longtime (I won't say old) labor and delivery nurses was telling me stories about pregnancies of our staff members.

Most of us work until we go into labor, which can lead to some funny situations. Like the busy night when the nurse breaks her water at work, and the charge nurse was stressed out because not only does she lose staffing for that shift, she has another patient needing a bed! That nurse delivered about a half hour after the shift ended, and they teased her that if she were really dedicated she could have finished out her hours first. (But I wouldn't volunteer to be her patient!)

You probably don't want to have to worry about your nurse going into labor when you are the one needing labor care. This is always a dilemma with many types of work during pregnancy - should women stop working a few weeks before the due date so staffing is reliable, or work until labor so they don't waste maternity leave before they really need it? Plus if you are used to working, sitting around at home can make the waiting for labor that much more frustrating.

My dentist told me a story from when she had her son. She had scheduled herself off after 38 weeks. But she got bored, so she allowed a patient to make an appointment for a problem. Partway through the session, the dentist started having contractions, but she continued to work. The patient later said she was relieved that the dentist hadn't gone into labor during the appointment. I think the dentist smiled at that, and then drove herself to the hospital to have her baby. 

And the craziest thing is that life doesn't get less complex after the baby is born!