#97 Being New in L&D: Advice, Getting the Job, Preventing Burnout & More

In this episode of Happy Hour with Bundle Birth Nurses, Sarah Lavonne continues part 2 of the conversation for nurses who are new to labor and delivery or new to the specialty altogether. She shares practical, experience-based advice on facing imposter syndrome, asking questions, and accelerating your growth without burning yourself out. This episode dives into the emotional realities of L&D nursing, including how to process hard days, hold space for yourself, and build recovery routines that support long-term sustainability. Sarah responds to listener questions about work-life balance, leaving work at work, and navigating burnout in today’s healthcare climate. Whether you’re a new grad, transitioning specialties, or mentoring newer nurses, this episode is a grounded reminder that you’re not alone.

Helpful Links!

• Part 1 Podcast episode: Tips for Being New, Ruptured Vasa Previa & Building Rapport with Providers 
• Burnout podcast episode 
• Subscribe for free monthly education for L&D Nurses!
• Learn More about our Mentorship Program
• Come to our MOVE Learning Retreat!
• Healing Trauma in the Birth Professional On-Demand Class
• Sign Up for our Physiologic Birth Class
• Sign Up for our Basic Fetal Monitoring Class

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https://pixabay.com/users/nastelbom-48128234/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=music&utm_content=463389

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Transcript

Sarah Lavonne: Hi, I'm Sarah Lavonne, and I'm so glad you're here. Here at Bundle Birth, we believe that your life has the potential to make a deep, meaningful impact on the world around you. You, as a nurse, have the ability to add value to every person and patient you touch. We want to inspire you with the resources, education, and stories to support you to live your absolute best life, both in and outside of work. Don't expect perfection over here. We're just here to have conversations about anything, birth, work, and life, trying to add some happy to your hour as we all grow together. By nurses for nurses, this is Happy Hour with Bundle Birth Nurses.
I am back for part two for our new nurses, new to specialty nurses, and anyone who comes across anybody new, because all of us need to be considering what it's like to be at various stages in our career. It's so weird. Recently, I've been having these conversations with some of my nurses on staff, and I forget what the topic was, but I was talking about something, and then they made a comment, specifically, it was, "I'm sure about physiologic birth, that's what I teach, that's my specialty.
I have been teaching this stuff now for so many years. I know it in and out, up and down. I am constantly updating the class. I'm constantly reading new research. There's two C-section articles that just came out yesterday that are already printed on my test. I'm crazy." I looked at her, and I was like, "People don't know that?" She was like, "No, don't you remember?" I was like, "Oh my God, I'm getting old," because I don't remember as much.
I have to access the vault of my brain of what it feels like to be new. What I love about this episode is that it has forced me to go back to the day of when I was new. It's also been really fun, and I think a challenge to all of us that maybe have been around for a while to think back to that timeframe, to remember what it feels like when you don't know, when you are new, when you're anticipating coming to labor and delivery, and all of those new feelings. Really holding space for each other in that way. Last episode, if you haven't listened to it, I gave you my top tips for new labor and delivery nurses, so go listen to that.
I have a couple more I'm going to go into today, and then I have two audios, I'm going to play from a couple of you where you audio'd in, or you voiced in to ask some questions. I'm going to give you two more quick tips, and then I'm going to play you the next audios. One of you said, "Don't fake it till you make it, face it until you make it. There's so much to learn, and you never stop. Keep finding answers."
This reminds me of what Justine said about imposter syndrome and admitting when you don't know, don't fake it till you make it. You're only setting yourself up for failure. Face it, ask those questions. One of the tips I have, and that I ended up doing, this was way later, was I would go through my shift, and I didn't feel safe on my first unit, I didn't really have a buddy. There was one person, Jolene, I'll call you out, shout you out, that, when she was working, I could ask her questions, and she never made me feel stupid. Otherwise, I didn't work with her all the time.
I had a little notebook, and whenever there was something that I was like, "I'm not totally sure about that." Maybe I could like half get there, but like, "What's the normal lab value for fibrinogen?" or, "How is this constituted?" or whatever it is, that I would just write it down. Then on my off days, I owned it enough. I would suggest this for you, that you go back and you actually answer your questions. You will expedite your growth exponentially if you actually face it until you make it like this nurse said.
Another one that I love here is, "The best advice I ever got was from a traveler when I was two to three weeks on orientation. She told me this job was hard and to let myself feel all the feelings if I needed to. You'll have some of the best days and some of the worst. It comes with the territory. Allow yourself to feel it and work through it. Yes, you're a nurse, but you're also human." This one, I think, helps us feel so much more well-rounded because everything I've talked about up until now is all about your skills and your relationships and emergencies. I told the story of the ruptured vasa previa in the last episode.
So often, we forget to hold space for ourselves as well. That same day, there was somebody in my DMs telling me about the demise that they had. They just said, "What do I do? How do I hold this? I got into labor and delivery and knew this would happen, but I didn't know I would feel this way." I could not agree more that when you've had those bad days, or maybe you're second-guessing yourself, to one, find your community where you can process that out.
That talking about it. One of the things that's been helpful for me in my therapy journeys has been that when you have an experience that exists in one place in your brain, and by talking about it-- Again, there are caveats to this based on what kind of trauma it is. By talking about it, it moves it to a different area of the brain where it's potentially less triggering, and it's like you literally process it through to another place. By holding it in, a lot of times, it stays in that place. It's like I picture physically in the brain, we got to move it through our bodies.
This is where a lot of our routines of self-care-- I hate that word. If you listen to the burnout call 1, which, by the way, there's a whole burnout episode this season as well. Go listen to that. That can feel cringy, but it's that "What do I do afterwards and how do I hold space for myself?" I am currently processing a big T trauma, and having to relive a little bit of this big T trauma. I may actually disclose, in the future, what that is, but I am not at liberty to talk about it right now.
What I find for me is one of my coping mechanisms is to just power through. When something hard happens, I'm like, "Yes, it's fine. I'm fine." My brain knows that like, "You're fine. You're safe." I can talk myself out of it. Maybe some of you relate. Maybe you don't. If you do, please let me know so I don't feel so alone. As I'm intellectualizing, I had to relive it. I had to have a conversation with some people recently where I had to recount some of this trauma.
After the call, I was like, "I'm fine. I didn't cry." Normall,y that's how I feel when I've had a hard day. I'm pretty tearful. In my older years, I've gotten more tearful. What I noticed about myself was about 15 or 20 minutes afterwards, I was at my desk, and I fell asleep. That is a trauma response. Now, I'm not saying that on your hard days, those are traumatic days. They may or they may not. I will give you a resource on our website.
We have a class called Healing Trauma in the Birth Professional. I reference this class for my clients. I've referenced this class and given it to some friends that are not even legal and delivery nurses. What that class does, it's our gift to you of what to do after you've had a hard shift. What are the physiologic things that you can do to help you recover? This is a teaser for where I'm going with this next audio on preventing burnout. I'll give you a heads-up on that.
Actually developing a routine to work those hard days out of your body, where you're resting, you're actually sleeping, where you're metabolizing the stress hormones. Where you have someone where you can talk about it, and you can just tell the story over and over and over again until you feel better. That's obviously going to help. Then, obviously, I'm going to recommend therapy for all of us. Healthcare is a really hard place. We all have our stuff to process. We're bringing in things from the outside. We're bringing the inside to the outside.
Obviously, if you can find that professional support, that's only going to help you. I love this advice. Feel the feelings, hold space. Yes, you're a nurse, but you're also human. The next tip that I wrote down or I saved from Instagram was, "Don't ever slam a door behind you. It's never necessary." Go in and out of the room gracefully. Always know your patient and family members' names.
What practical and just really simple tips? I think I'm going to take this figuratively. Don't slam the door. Don't close the door. You never know how it'll open things for you, Alan D. OB is a very small community, but I'm also going to take it very literally that, like, don't slam the door, especially when you're talking about labor hormones and the physiologic birth process. That we have an influence on the patient's experience and on how their hormones either support labor to move forward or potentially hinder them.
Go in and out of the room gracefully. How I knock is, this is a tip for new of us, is I'll always knock, knock, knock. I'll crack the door and just say, "It's Sarah, your nurse. Can I come in?" If I know they're laboring and we've been in and out, I'll just say, "It's Sarah, your nurse," so that when that knock happens, one, no matter where they're at in the labor process, they are going to wake up their neocortex. We teach this in physiologic birth and physiologic coping classes. It's going to wake up their neocortex, and they're going to go, "Am I safe?"
Then very quickly, they're like, "It's Sarah, your nurse." "Okay, I'm safe," and they can go right back into that physiologic labor experience. Versus just flying through the door, banging the doors, and turning on the lights and being all aggressive. I love the tip of always know your patient and family members' names. It makes it so much more meaningful, so much more personable, and remember that they're human too. I'm going to play for you a audio recording from one of our nurses that wrote in, and then I'm going to respond to this with an advice that I also got in DMs, and then we'll talk about this one.
Kelly: My name is Kelly. I'm a new grad registered nurse working in labor and delivery. My question for you is, what is your best piece of advice for someone who's starting out in labor and delivery or is new to the specialty? Also, I know that burnout is very real in our profession. What is something that you do to help with that work-life balance to keep work at work, if that makes sense? I've been really struggling with this as a new grad.
Sarah: Thank you, Kelly, for that call. I think, one, you're not alone. First of all, I relate. I'm sure that everyone listening also relates. We talked about the tips that we give new grad nurses or new nurses, but what is the routines? First of all, I would love to know all of your routines as well. Maybe we'll do a post, send them in DMs, I'll save them. Maybe I'll come back again, part three for our routines for preventing burnout. If you haven't heard the burnout call, that is also there, and there's a lot of tips in there. What I would say is that develop a recovery routine. There is a podcast episode that we talk about burnout and preventing burnout, and it's just a part of the job.
Also, I want to acknowledge that my perspective, this is my opinion, is that it is extra hard right now in the world, in healthcare, in nursing, in labor and delivery nursing, that the morale isn't great overall. We don't want to learn. We don't want to grow. We don't want to do extra. We don't want to come in extra. We're tired. We're worn out. We're maybe bummed. We're disheveled. Some of that has to do with work, yes, and some of that has to do with life, yes. I think, just, one, acknowledging the reality of your state. Then I'm going to read you some advice that was written in that directly answers this question that I agree with so much that I think is really practical.
Someone said, "The older nurses told me not to pick up extra shifts. The first year is so hard. Working extra burns you out too soon. I listened and now share that with my new grads. There will always be extra shifts. The hospital will never tell you no if you keep coming in extra. They will not gauge your burnout. You have to do that for yourself." I think what I love about this is that it is so practical that obviously, financially, what you need to do is what you need to do, but if you can afford to work what your normal shifts are and actually be so incredibly intentional with your time off and protecting that time off, you are going to set yourself up for a long career.
I also agree with at least the first year, maybe even the first two years. The amount of overwhelm that happens in that first year, it takes a long time, depending on your birth volume, facility, certain experiences. There's units I have nurses tell me that "I've only seen 10 births in the first year." That's not very much, whereas I saw 10 births in the first day. Depending on where you're at, you need time to settle in, to feel comfortable, to not feel like your brain is completely swarming. The more experiences you have, the more experiences you have to ruminate on as well. I love that advice. If you can swing it, do your shifts, however many that is, three or four shifts, and then be off.
When you're off, be really intentional about being off. My last tip for this that's related to being new but also in preventing burnout, is to learn to leave work at work. When you are clocked out, there is absolutely nothing else you can do. You are done. What ends up happening is we create our own suffering because we're ruminating and we're saying, "Well, what if this and what if that?" The anxiety spiral says, "This could lead to this, leads to this, leads to this, leads to this," and now we've snowballed into a bundle of anxiety. Now, if you feel like you are not equipped to do your job at the best you know you can do, then go searching for it. That's always going to be my answer. We're lifelong learners.
Go out there, ask the questions, take the classes, do mentorship, come to MOVE Learning Retreat, all those things, especially physiologic birth, and all the other things. Buy the AWHONN Perinatal Nursing book, read it, look things up. If you are equipped and you know that, one, you're human, and two, that you did the absolute best that you could do on that shift, when you clock out, make it a ritual, figure out a mantra where it's like, "I'm leaving work at work. I did the best I could with the knowledge and information I had at the time. I left them better than before I arrived."
Then learn to just let it go. That is an active practice. Then the other one that I'll say, sorry, really side tip, because I'm seeing this research article that I read about burnout recently, but it's also, you need to take your PTO. Hold on to that PTO for some other rainy day. Plan a vacation. Get away. Not every job has PTO. Because you're given that PTO, use your PTO. There's actually a correlation with people who don't use their PTO and burnout. All right? You need that time. You need new experiences. Go travel the world, especially if you're young, and you can, and you don't have kids, and all of that.
Take advantage of that season of your life and go travel the world, and go see new things, and have new experiences, and refresh your heart and soul in the way that you need to. Then last but not least, I'm going to play for you one more audio and respond to that. Then we will be done with this series for now, unless you have other questions. As always, you can always email us at nurses@bundlebirth.com. Make sure you subscribe to our newsletter. I give you free education every single month. We'll link that down below.
It's called The Buzz. I write on various topics. Then you also learn the OB and the news. You'll stay up to date on all the things happening around us. You can join us in a class, mentorship. MOVE Learning Retreat's coming up. It is our last one. You can learn all about that. I'll link everything down below. If you want to stay involved or you want to respond, I would really love hearing from you. Love, love, love hearing from you. Email us at nurses@bundlebirth.com.
Speaker 3: I am currently a med-surg nurse. I just graduated in December of 2025 and really would like to get into women's health, labor delivery, postpartum, any of that. What recommendations would you have for helping someone get into that area of nursing care?
Sarah: All right. I'm not a recruiter. Let's be clear. I'm not currently hiring. I hire. I can say that, and actually, I'm going to give you an inside scoop. This is one of my phrases. This is one of my isms. If you've been around, you know I have like a thousand Bundle Birthisms/ Sarahisms, flex and flow, one contraction at a time. Don't write their story. There's nothing worth your mental health. So many other things. One of the things that I say internally is that life is an interview. If you know me at all or you have any personal experiences with me, you're ever seeing me in person, just know that I watch everything. Most people who are in charge of units, who are in charge of businesses, are constantly looking for talent.
"Who can I recruit? Who belongs on this team? Who is going to be the right fit?" Think about it through the lens of life being an interview. I will say that if you want to get into labor and delivery, one, just go online and look for open positions. Most hospitals have specific positions for either new grad or new to specialty labor and delivery nurses versus experienced nurses. That is different, but also the relationships that you build are the answer. I will give you, also, a little sneaky insider scoop. Back in the day, I actually missed the application deadline for the hospital that I eventually got hired at. It was a teaching hospital. They had a Versant new grad program. I knew I wanted labor and delivery.
I knew I wanted to be able to speak Spanish because I grew up in Ecuador. I was like, "This hospital is perfect for me. I want to work there." I went to go apply, and I had missed it. I was so bummed. I happened to be sitting next to a friend who was like, "Wait, what hospital? My mom's a nurse at a hospital in that system, and she might know someone." She texts her mom. Her mom knew the CNO. Her mom put in a good word. They passed my application through, and I got an interview. I did book the job. I had to go through the whole interview process, and I did get the job myself. I absolutely had an insider scoop.
The fact that you are already at a hospital, build whatever relationships you can with whomever you can in those specialties, whether that's maybe getting involved in an effort, if there's some sort of event, whether it's going to the nursing manager's office while you're on your break and saying, "I want to go introduce myself." Just be that bold person. Life's an interview. If I have someone come to me and they introduce themselves, they tell me exactly how they can help, how passionate they are about their work, about labor and delivery. "Do you have any openings?" Go make that face-to-face connection. Your relationships will get you the farthest in life.
This is something that I wish someone would have taught me. This is where, also for me growing up, I grew up overseas. I grew up in Ecuador. My parents were missionaries, and I had a very sheltered, in a microcosm life experience. I had an incredible growing-up. I went to an international school with 50 kids from 53 different countries. It was English-speaking. I got an American curriculum. It was the most amazing schooling. I would say I have the most incredible relationships from it, the best friends from all over the world, just amazing growing up, but I lived in this bubble of South America.
One of the things that I wish I would have been taught was the power of networking and your relationships. Even I was having this conversation with my sister because she has two kids, they're three and five, and we were talking about them going to school. Dakota, my five-year-old nephew, is at a charter school here in Los Angeles. He got into a really good one. We were talking about how the relationships you make now, the college you go to, and the relationships you make now, think about any successful person, it's because they knew them growing up, or like, "My friend's dad was Steve Jobs." Those relationships could not be more important. Don't be fake, be yourself.
What they want to know is that you care and that you're going to care to work hard to learn to be the best that you can be on those units. My biggest suggestion to you would be, go meet the labor and delivery manager. Ask them if they're hiring. Tell them why you're passionate. If they don't have any openings, just say, "I would love to know. I will be keeping my eyes open. I'll let you know when I apply.' and blah, blah, blah. They might be ready to open up an application, and you get the inside scoop, and they're like, "Yes, I'll be watching for you." You will likely get an interview at least. Then obviously, just being genuine in your interview and all of that is going to help you.
My second tip for you, and I could give you like 500, but I will talk forever, and I won't for the sake of time, but my second tip for you is to show by your portfolio, your passion for OB. It's one thing to say, "I want to work in OB," but if I am looking at a stack of resumes, which your resume should, to me, look appealing. It needs to look organized. It needs to be one page. It needs to stand out and not just be a word doc. I'm also an aesthetic freak. If you want to apply for me, make it beautiful. If I see a typo, or-- I'm crazy about formatting, so that this is also me. I will say it's good first impressions that something has to stand out.
When they look at what you've done, if it shows that you are invested in becoming the best you can, that you're a self-starter, that you're motivated, that's going to make you stand out. Some of the things that I would recommend doing would be to do the AWHONNs, either intermediate or advanced fetal monitoring class. Before you do that, you should probably do our basic fetal monitoring class so that you're not quite so lost. Do basic fetal monitoring. Put it on your resume. "I've already been learning about fetal monitoring." Physiologic birth of ours would be amazing. Of course, I'm going to recommend our classes, so bear with it. I can't help myself because I believe in them for you.
Physiologic birth. "I've done physiologic birth. I'm enrolled in mentorship. I have read this book. I went to this conference." Put in your portfolio a list of all the CEs that you've gotten outside of that. "I have done whatever it is." With the point being that you're showing that you are a self-starter, that you want to be the best you can be, and that you're invested in the specialty, and ideally that you're going to stay. As a manager, I also want to know that I'm not just going to hire you to give you the six-month experience so that you can go somewhere else. Why do you want to be a part of this unit? How will you contribute your unique personality, your gifts, your talents to build up the morale on the unit?
How will you maintain your stamina? How will you not get burnt out and jaded and all of that? Bringing that energy, that light, that positivity is only going to set you up. If you can do that, obviously, through your application, but also making those relationships. If you see someone in the calf and they have a labor and delivery nurse badge on, introduce yourself and be bold and be like, "Hey, I'm so-and-so. I see you're in labor and delivery. I'm a med-surg nurse. I really want to get into labor and delivery. How is it for you?"" All of a sudden, that one relationship where it's me in the calf, and I'm like, "Oh, I really like her. Wow, she really is passionate."
"I might know of rumblings of job openings. Somebody just quit. I'm anticipating a job opening up soon. Do you want me to introduce you to my manager? Let me tell them about you," et cetera, et cetera, especially in your current hospital system. That will get you the farthest, in my opinion, possible. I could continue to go on forever. I love talking about being new. I love helping with advice. I will just leave you with that. It's stressful. Life is stressful. You can do it. Literally, you can do anything that you put your heart to. If this is something that you're passionate about, join us in the community. I can't wait to welcome you with open arms.
There is literally no DM that makes me happier or email that makes me happier than somebody who's like, "I've been following you for however many years," or "I've watched you on YouTube, and I went to nursing school, I went doula to nurse," or whatever. "Now I finally got my job." We want to celebrate with you as you get those jobs. As you have your hard days, as you have your great days, we love hearing your stories. We love being in it with you in whatever capacity that you let us. Thanks, everyone, for spending your time with us during this episode of Happy Hour with Bundle Birth Nurses.
If you like what you heard, it helps us both if you subscribe, rate, leave a raving review, and share this episode with a friend. If you want more from us, head to bundlebirthnurses.com, subscribe to our newsletter, or follow us on Instagram. Now it's your turn to take what you learned today. Apply it to your life, and go meet someone new. Go network the heck out of the world, whether that be in labor and delivery, in a specialty where you want to go, or even just in life. Your relationships are the foundation of your happiness. We are not meant to do life alone. We are meant to do life in community. We are always here for you, and we are always cheering you on. We'll see you next time.