"You need a degree in nursing and specializations", what did my counselor mean?

she was in a hurry because the counseling office was chaotic and did not really pay attention to all my questions.

My Q was: I want a career that allows me to work with newborns. Not kids. I wan to be the one that takes care of them right after they are born. Maybe clean them up and give them a bath, etc.

You want to be a neonatal nurse practicioner. check out some nursing schools and some NP programs that specialize in neonatology or OB-GYN or pediatrics.

http://nursing.umaryland.edu/admissions/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nurse_pract...
http://www.nursesource.org/neonatal.html

It depends on what you're planning to be. For example, if you told her you want to be an operating room nurse, she meant that you have to get a nursing degree and then take special classes in operating room procedure (how to lay out the instruments, how to moniter a patient, whatever). If you want to be a nurse who works with addicts, you need the degree plus social work/psychology classes focusing on addictions. Most nursing jobs today take a basic degree and then extra classes in whatever area you're specializing in.

If you want to work in certain fields, you need more then a nursing degree, you need a nursing degree specializing in that field. For example pediatrics, nicu, icu, genetic counseling, geriatrics, and many many more. Basically you get your BA in the field of nursing and spend at least another year of schooling or so learning more intense medicine towards one type of medicine.
Like how some doctors are Surgeons, some pediatrics, emergency medicine.

Well, you probably know that physicians have been specializing for many years now. Nursing is there, too. You can complete the basic practical nursing program and be one of the numberless cogs in the monstrous health care machine, giving simple bedside care, or you can go on to a Bachelor's Degree, earning your RN and with a little experience become the nursing team leader, the charge nurse, the head nurse, the nursing supervisor - or you can go on to graduate studies and become a specialist in health education, a physician's assistant, a nurse practitioner, a nurse anesthetist, or obtain advanced certification as a diabetes educator, a cardiac care specialist, a public health nurse, a certified oncology nurse...there are numerous other nursing specialties, too, especially in home care, obstetrics (how about becoming a certified midwife?)or geriatrics.
Go ahead and get started in your nursing program. By the time you've gotten into your second year, you'll have a pretty good idea of what's out there and which specialty most closely fits your unique skills and abilities.

Where I live you to work in the nursery is to be a RN or LPN. Our hospital does on the job training meaning you do not have to have a extra schooling for specialization.