Help with Nursing School?

I know that I want to be a nurse...especially a lobor and delivery nurse. But looking at all the degree programs is kind of confusing and I don't know what kind of schooling I need. Do I have to get my RN first and then work towards being a specialty nurse or are there programs where I can solely focus on that kind of nursing? What would be the best sort of program to get into?

If you want to be a labor nurse, you need to be a Registered Nurse.

When you are an RN, you are trained in a variety of functions and have exposure to many specialties, and you spend one whole semester in Maternal and Child health, which includes clinical rotations in L&D.

Once you earn your degree (2 year or a 4 year, the RN license is the same for either), you just try to get a job in L&D. It's hard to go straight in as a new grad - you might need to get some experience in a general medical/surgical unit at a hospital for 6 months to a year and then try to switch. That's what I had to do - I worked in cardiac for awhile then went to L&D.

In any job you want to work in, whether ER, OR, pediatrics, critical care, postpartum or L&D, etc., the hospital will train you for your position on your unit. Usually what happens is your first two weeks of your job is spent in orientation to the hospital as a whole and unit-specific education and competency exams. For L&D, I had full-time 40 hour week classroom for over 2 weeks - they had full-day classes on pregnancy, labor, breastfeeding, postpartum, common medical conditions of pregnancy such as gestational diabetes and preeclampsia, Neonatal Resuscitation, etc.

After the classroom stuff, you work with a preceptor one on one, and they show you how to do everything you need to do for your job and you work with the patients together over the course of several weeks - like 8-12, depending on the job. Less time if you have experience, maybe 4-6 weeks. Slowly you start doing everything yourself and then you're deemed competent and you go off orientation.

Later, once you've been working in a birth center for a few years, you can earn a certification by exam which essentially shows you have a lot of experience and expertise in the specialty, which makes you a more valuable employee. You could go on and earn a master's degree (2 years beyond the 4 year BSN) and be a Nurse Practitioner in Women's Health or perhaps be a Certified Nurse Midwife.

Try Surgical Nursing.

Maybe midwifery?