Medicine and Motherhood: Overcoming the “Nurse Curse”

Have you ever been in a situation where you knew too much? Maybe you’re stuck in the middle of a debate between two friends and you know too much about the situation. In that moment you might wish you were oblivious to what was actually going on. They say “knowledge is power”, but sometimes you just wish you didn’t have said knowledge. 

Girl with doctor costume on

I’ve been there. I started working in Labor and Delivery as a tech while going to college back in my hometown. It was the best job I have ever had, and the most stressful. I was the inquisitive tech who was always up for learning. Thankfully, I worked at a teaching hospital and was allowed to observe and help in various deliveries and procedures. If I didn’t know something, I asked. The field fascinates me and I delved in head first. 

Fast forward 5 years when I found out I was expecting my first child. I was a nervous wreck to say the least and to top it off, the issues with my pregnancy were never ending. I had a leaking cyst in the beginning, a large Subchorionic Hemorrhage at 13 weeks, strict bed rest for months, a scare of Chorioamnionitis, low-lying placenta, contractions at 20 weeks, a terrible itch that may have been Cholestasis, and then to top it off high blood pressure which lead to my induction. To say my pregnancy was riddled with anxiety is an understatement. 

If you have ever worked in the medical field, I am sure you have heard the term ‘nurse curse’. When I went in for contractions at 20 weeks, a nurse and I joked about how I, for sure, had the ‘nurse curse’.

And at that moment I knew, I knew too much.

Not only did I already have too much base knowledge in nursing, but I also had Dr. Google. The two combined were like a nightmare waiting to happen. Don’t get me wrong, I am thankful for the knowledge I had (for the most part) as I feel I was able to advocate for myself. I was able to ask the hard questions and question the advice when needed. 

And I know I am not the only one. We medical professionals have to go through life second guessing every piece of advice and every medical suggestion because we know too much. This not only affects our lives, it affects our children’s lives as well. They will forever be embarrassed by their mom who asks too many questions. The mom who questions the doctor not because she thinks she knows more but because that has been her job. To make sure she digs until she finds the right solution, whether it be for her patients or her family.

Throughout that pregnancy and my daughters first year of life, I have learned many things about how I use all the knowledge I have gained throughout my years in the medical field. 

  1. I am not a hypochondriac like most would think. Imagine going around with all these facts floating around in your head and being told to basically suppress them because you are being a hypochondriac. It doesn’t work like that.
  2. I use the knowledge that I have to advocate for my own health and the health of my children. 
  3. No amount of knowledge can override the fact that we still have a ‘mom gut’ for a reason. Listen to it, it usually doesn’t steer us wrong. 

Even in the midst of working in Labor and Delivery, I wished I had had children before I had worked there. I knew the minute I found out I was going to become a mom, I would find myself in that place of knowing too much. But with a little twist I have learned to take my anxiety and turn in it into something constructive.

Have you ever worked in the medical field and now find yourself riddled with too many questions at the doctors office?

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Brittni Brown
Brittni is a Kansas girl at heart and newly married to her Kansas born but Sooner bred husband Josh. A sweet baby girl named Marci Ann and 3 dogs round out their loving family. They call Moore home having moved here from Houston. Within the past year and half she has moved to OK, married her love, graduated from college, spent 9 months on bed rest, and birthed her beautiful MA. She is a follower of Christ, blessed wife, and aspiring homeroom mom. She is fueled by Half-Caff Vanilla Caramel Coconut Milk Lattes and anything sweet. She is a GF baking pro, avid baby wearer, hedgehog lover, and Christmas obsessor. You can find her keeping it real and simple over at her blog Marci & Me!

3 COMMENTS

  1. Yes to all this. Sometimes I wish I didn’t know that much. And sometimes is helpful when I know what to look for on my kids especially when they are sick. If it’s worthy of a doctor visit or not.

  2. Completely agree with this. We had testing for my daughter and I was going nuts waiting for the results thanks to my nursing knowledge base and as you had mentioned Dr. Google. It was brutal!

  3. Have been a nurse for 13 years. Today a doctor told me I had the nurses curse. I asked what that meant bowing my body I really kind of already knew. I worked at Walmart for years before I decided I was tired of telling people what was wrong with them and decided to change me career. I was strong to the point I was named the strongest woman in my home town. I was 46 and my husband had to convince me it was a good choice-even at this age. A couple of years later I went for my first surgery, then a second and a third. I was DXd with fibromyalgia and if your a tenured nurse then you know there are fifty other health issues that go along with fm. Then my shoulder with working, my hip started going out-I didn’t even get a dance with that date. Both knees are shot. I never know which will go out or if all three go out at the same time. Then comes plantar fasciitis , a bunion, two corns and a partridge in a pear tree. I quit thinking about all that had gone wrong on my body the day I started trying to convince doctors And insurance the tumor in my head has started growing. He doctors laughed me off and insurance probably drew straws for who would take my hundredth call to them. My husband and I started baking it all a joke when an NP told me to get out there was NOTHING wrong with me and DON’T COME BACK. I can handle laughing off something that was never here. My s/s: dizziness, localized head aches, left sided ear aches. So I went back to school. Once educated-never educated enough. I was upstairs first quarter finals. Everything went double- badly-at the head of the stairs. I thought about it then sat down. At that point I laughed as I rolled in slow motion to the landing, I saw me eye doctor thinking I had twisted my glasses studying. He Soren maybe two minutes looking into my eyes, stood up, faced the wall, and told me to see a doctor NOW. I went to a walk-in clinic and the PA said to heck with doctors and insurance and she sent me for an MRI. When she called with the results. She has an appointment for me to go to the city to see a neurologist, who sent me to a surgeon. So, to make a long story a wee bit shorter, a golf ball size tumor was in my head. And the rest is history lol

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