Careers in babies: 32 Great Jobs for Nurses That Want to Work With Babies & Kids

Jobs With Babies

If you love infants and are looking for a new career, options abound for jobs with babies. But passion alone won’t make you succeed. “Infants are beautiful and demanding little people who are very curious about the world,” says Helen Adeosun, the founder and CEO of caregiver support site Care Academy. “You have to be patient and want to help babies grow at such a developmentally important time.”

Jobs with babies require various levels of experience, training and degrees, but many people already have a good foundation. “If you worked at summer camps or were your neighborhood’s go-to babysitter, you already bring lots of relevant experience to the table,” says Amanda Augustine is the career expert for TopResume.

First, think about what setting you’d like to work in. “Some people prefer working in a school, while others prefer offices, hospitals or homes,” says Mary Lorenz of CareerBuilder. Then consider how much time and money you’d like to invest in schooling and training. With some self-reflection and research, you should be able to find a career you love.

Here are 15 jobs working with babies:

1. Nanny
   Nannies care for babies and children in their own home or the family’s home. Though most of their time is spent with babies, they may also prepare meals, do light housework and run errands.
    
2. Child Care Center Owner or Worker
   You can get lots of hands-on baby time by opening or working at a child care center. Education and training requirements depend on your state and employer.
    
3. Children’s Gym Owner or Teacher
   A fun way to work with babies and kids is to open a children’s gym or become an infant teacher at one of them. Businesses such as The Little Gym, My Gym and Gymboree Play & Music offer franchise opportunities. Each location has different educational and training requirements for teachers.
    
4. Pediatrician
   A pediatrician is a physician who cares for babies and children. Pediatricians perform wellness checks, diagnose and treat illnesses and more. They also provide newborn care after a baby’s birth. Pediatricians must hold medical degrees.
    
5. Pediatric Nurse
   Pediatric nurses can be registered nurses (RNs), licensed practical nurses (LPNs) or nursing assistants. RNs must have a bachelor’s or associate’s degree in nursing — or complete an approved nursing program — and be licensed. LPNs, who work under RNs, must complete a state-approved educational program and be licensed. Nursing assistants must complete a state-approved educational program and pass their state’s competency exam.
    
6. Pediatric Nurse Practitioner
   Nurse practitioners are RNs who serve as primary and specialty health care providers in lieu of pediatricians, but some states still require them to work under a physician’s supervision.
    
7. Neonatal Nurse
   A neonatal nurse is an LPN or RN who cares for babies — many of them preemies — in a hospital’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).
    
8. Labor and Delivery Nurse
   Labor and delivery nurses are RNs who help women during childbirth. They also monitor the mother and baby and provide postpartum care.
    
9. Doula
   A doula supports an expectant mother during labor via aromatherapy, massage and more. Doulas work with the medical team to ensure the mother’s wishes are met, and they help with newborn care.
    
10. Obstetrician
    An obstetrician is a physician who cares for pregnant women and delivers babies. The job requires a medical degree.
     
11. Midwife
    Nurse-midwives and lay midwives care for pregnant women and deliver babies. Both jobs require specialized training in delivering babies, but a nurse midwife also needs nursing credentials.
     
12. Lactation Consultant
    Lactation consultants help new mothers successfully breastfeed their babies. They help mothers increase their milk supply, help babies latch properly and more. Lactation consultants must complete breastfeeding coursework and pass a certification exam.
     
13. Infant Massage Therapist
    An infant massage therapist helps premature babies develop their muscle strength and functionality. To become one, you must complete an infant massage therapy program and become licensed. Two programs to try are Loving Touch and Liddle Kidz Foundation.
     
14. Pediatric Physical Therapist
    A pediatric physical therapist helps babies and kids with disabilities, illnesses or injuries improve their movement and manage their pain via massage and manipulation. Physical therapists need a Doctor of Physical Therapy degree and a state license.
     
15. Newborn and Baby Photographer
    Many professional photographers specialize in photographing babies, which involves posing them and getting them to smile. While portrait photographers don’t need specific degrees, many take classes to improve their technical skills.

Concerned about going back to work? Check out 5 Ways Working Mothers Help Their Kids.

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This article originally appeared on Care.com. 

Medical Careers for People Who Want to Work with Babies

With so many options for medical careers, it can be difficult to choose one specialty. As you’re considering different ones, you may want to learn more about medical careers dealing with babies. There are many to choose from and they can be both fulfilling and rewarding.

Midwives

What They Do: Midwives help mothers during pregnancy, delivery and postpartum. They provide support, education, and ensure mother and baby are healthy. Nurse midwives can deliver babies, help with nursing and care for babies to allow mothers to recuperate.

Is It Right for You? Midwives have a lot of patience and an excellent bedside manner. They are able to comfort people easily and multitask with minimal difficulties. People skills are required.

Education/Training Needed: There are two different types: lay midwives and nurse midwives. The former doesn’t need special education, training or certification, while the latter does require certifications and licensure. Nurse midwives are usually registered nurses who go through a program approved by the American College of Nurse-Midwives.

Salary: Nurse midwives earn approximately $46.62 per hour, or $96,970 per year.

Neonatal Nurse Practitioner

What They Do: Neonatal nurses are registered nurses providing medical care to newborn babies. They ensure babies are healthy, but also care for those that have medical issues after birth. They can assist doctors in newborn medical procedures. They can also work with researchers and as educators and consultants.

Is It Right for You? Since you can work as an educator, this is perfect for someone who loves the study of newborn babies but doesn’t want to be involved in direct care. For those that want to work directly with newborns, it’s important to be able to cope with newborns who may be ill or have a disability. People skills are necessary to be able to speak with parents about their newborn’s condition.

Education/Training Needed: Neonatal nurses need to graduate from an accredited nursing program for registered nurses. They will also need to be certified in intensive care nursing or neonatal resuscitation.

Salary: Neonatal nurse practitioners earn on average $107,550 per year. Salary depends on location and experience.

Lactation Consultant

What They Do: A lactation consultant helps new mothers with breastfeeding. Since breastfeeding isn’t always easy, a lactation consultant will work with the mother to properly position the infant, ensure a good latch is achieved and make sure enough milk is produced for the baby’s needs.

Lactation consultants can work in hospitals, doctors’ offices and clinics, and can also independently visit mothers in their homes.

Is It Right for You? Patience is important since mothers and babies can have difficulty getting breastfeeding right. You will need to be able to support and comfort mothers who are worried about their baby getting enough milk.

Education/Training Needed: Lactation consultants need either an Associate of Science in Nursing or a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree. They must also pass a national exam for certification.

Salary: The average hourly wage for a lactation consultant is $26, and the annual salary can range from $33,291 to $85,123.

Pediatric Doctor

What They Do: A pediatric doctor – pediatrician – treats babies and children who are ill. They treat everything from strep throat and pink eye to social and mental health issues. They also administer immunizations and advise mothers on how to best care for their baby. They may work in hospitals, clinics or in their own private practice.

Is It Right for You? You must like working with babies and children and their parents. You should be able to have a patience and a disposition that children and parents like. Relationship building is important for pediatricians because children are often scared when visiting the doctor.

Education/Training Needed: Pediatricians need to complete a medical degree program and receive a medical license after finishing a residency program. Licensure comes after passing a national exam.

Salary: The average salary for a pediatrician is $175,000. Specialists can earn more depending on what they are specializing in; for example, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon can earn $424,367 per year.

Obstetrician

What They Do: An obstetrician is a doctor that helps women deliver their babies. They work with women throughout pregnancy performing ultrasounds and ensuring they are taking good care of their bodies to support the baby’s growth. During delivery, they make sure mother and baby are healthy during the labor process. After delivery, they ensure the mother recovers and the baby receives the nutrition needed to thrive.

Is It Right for You? You need to have excellent problem-solving skills. You need to have a positive attitude and good communication skills. It’s important to be able to be supportive and provide comfort during difficult pregnancy, deliveries and postpartum.

Education/Training Needed: Obstetricians need to complete a medical degree program. To enter a medical degree program, you’ll need to score well on the MCAT – Medical College Admission Test. Medical school lasts four years. Medical school graduates must then complete a four-year residency training program. Residency programs are paid, but at a much lower amount than a certified obstetrician. Certifications are granted from the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ABOG).

Salary: The average salary for obstetricians was $301,737 in 2012. Those who are starting out can expect around $200,000 per year. Residency programs can pay $45,000 to $60,000 a year.

Working with babies can warm your heart because you’re helping them have the best start possible in life. Consider one of these careers if you want to work in the medical field.

About the Author

Sarah Landrum

Sarah Landrum is a freelance writer, blogger, and aspiring world traveler. Sarah is also the founder of Punched Clocks, a site on which she shares advice for young professionals on navigating the work world, and finding happiness and success at work. For more on all things career follow her @SarahLandrum

Child and career – how to combine it?

In our time – the time of energetic people, quick decisions, creative ideas and fast food – there is so little left for themselves, for their family, that women often face a difficult choice: to pursue a career or think about family and children.

Here everyone makes his choice, listening to his own desires and dreams. But many of the fair sex do not give up the main charms of life and are able to combine motherhood with a career. Mediakritika.by finds out how mothers-journalists do it from three colleagues.

Many women fear that the birth of a child may somehow negatively affect their work or career. What do you think about it?

– I think this is nonsense. A child is a stimulus; on the contrary, he motivates. I do not know how the birth of a child can negatively affect a career. Everything, of course, depends on where the mother works, but now there are a lot of examples of women who successfully combine motherhood with a career.

For example, let’s talk about journalism. If you are engaged in a profession, and not in an editorial business, then now a journalist can easily prepare materials – he went, interviewed with a stroller, did it by phone or Skype. In our time, there are so many opportunities and means to work that, it seems to me, a child cannot be an obstacle to this. These fears most often arise when the baby is first. Then think about how it will be. But everything will turn out as it should, there will be a certain rhythm of work, your own regime. There would be a desire.

In addition, there is a moment of priorities. You will have to sacrifice something, of course. But! They say that work will not hug or kiss you. And it is true. If you are torn and do not understand what is important, both mother and child will suffer. If you rank your needs, then everything will turn out harmoniously.

– I started working when the baby was 2 weeks old, and I still don’t stop, my son is already 9 years old. It seems to me that a child cannot be an obstacle to a career, except that with motherhood it will be – which in Belarusian sounds “pavolna” – more slowly.

Naturally, no one has canceled any obligations to raise children, to feed them when they are very small, but on the other hand, it is wrong to talk about what didn’t work out with work because the child appeared. And there are many different examples (including mine) that a child has absolutely no effect on building a career.

– I am convinced that there is nothing more meaningful than the birth of a child, so the opportunity to organize one’s professional activity even with several children is absolutely real. My baby, because I have a special situation – I’m a widow, travels with me to filming, attends events in the office, so I don’t see any problems.

What advice would you give to those who doubt whether they can combine career and family?

Tatyana Guseva, journalist of the online newspaper “Salidarnasts”

– Those mothers who simply cannot help but work are working on maternity leave. These women will be unhappy if they are deprived of the possibility of self-realization for three years. But a child needs a happy mother. You have to get away from this.

One way or another, you will have to sacrifice something and give something away. Since it won’t happen before, you need to clearly understand this. For me, for example, the priority is always a child. It’s the most important. And maybe that’s why it’s easier for me with my second child, I don’t try to be in time everywhere.

It is known that the reproductive age ends very quickly, the clock is ticking. Personally, I was afraid of failing. I understood that I would write as many more interviews as my heart desires, but I might not have time to give birth. So I advise you to think about this.

When a child is born, life changes, you look at everything differently. Before birth, you don’t know how it will be, and then you realize that the most important thing is children. And it is true.

Algunya Komyagina, Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist in Belarus

– It seems to me that I have no right to give any advice, but the main thing is probably that the family supports each other. If a woman wants to work, it is important that a man supports her in this endeavor. And I can advise you to think it over well before making a decision, so that later you do not regret any missed opportunities.

I never ask what is more important – a career or a child. For me it is equally important. Everything that happens in my life is important – a child, family, work. I never prioritize.

But I have a tradition. Since I work a lot and for a long time, and I have little time left to fully communicate with the child, then on the weekends we will definitely go somewhere, do something together. This tradition has been around for many years: probably as long as my son. On the other hand, when he was very small and did not go to kindergarten, he was constantly by my side, I don’t think that he was deprived of my love or something else.

I worked at home, and my son was with me, lying in a sun lounger while I worked. And as she began to do more journalism, he stayed at home with a nanny. We have a grandfather who looks after him and a father who is also involved in his upbringing.

Alyona Sheremet, journalist TUT.by

– I myself went through such a stage in my life, and one of my friends gave me very valuable advice – she quoted folk wisdom: “God bless, let it go.” In the sense that it will be possible to earn money for children and organize your life. Following this advice, I became a happy mother, and never in my life did I have to regret it even for a split second or doubt that it was the right step. Do not be afraid! If there is a loved one nearby with whom you want to spend your whole life, it is obvious that no child will make this life worse, but will only make it better.

How do you manage to properly organize your life so that your work does not harm your family or your career?

Tatyana Guseva, journalist of the online newspaper “Solidarity”

– It doesn’t always work out (laughs). And my eldest daughter says that she often needed me, and I worked. Yes, it is, and these reproaches will probably always be.

There is no universal recipe here, there are different children, everyone has a different routine. And even the fact that you work at home does not always save. Sometimes it’s even easier to go somewhere to the office. True, it is easier for me when I am at home and available to my children.

I have now hired a babysitter by the hour for my youngest child, because I realized that it was difficult for me to cope. Sometimes I feel guilty that I am not with my son, but work. A nanny is a good way out for those who have very young children and want to work. I was advised by my colleague, a journalist. And I’m very glad.

Perhaps it is better to choose a job without a hard deadline (especially on maternity leave when the child does not go to kindergarten), because it is unlikely that you will be able to run and compete with someone from the “reporter” profession.

For example, I took my eldest daughter with me to reportage. She was often taken there to babysit, and she was a happy child. With the younger I interviewed via Skype. I was not ashamed of this, but immediately warned that I had a small child. I could take him in my arms, move away when I needed to. Everything worked out harmoniously. Children, of course, can do something, but this is a certain “raisin”. Now, if you write texts, then it’s difficult, it’s better for someone to take the children.

Sometimes you have to say to yourself, “Stop, I don’t work anymore. I spend these hours with loved ones. Now is the time when everyone is trying to earn money, but the family should still be a priority, which means that a balance is needed. A good option is when you plan your time well. Working at night is not an option, you can burn out very quickly. And then you will stop giving yourself to your children, and your loved one, and work.

Algunya Komyagina, Komsomolskaya Pravda journalist in Belarus

– Everything is badly organized for me, I’m generally spontaneous. I have a strange attitude to all this: I don’t think, for example, that a woman’s mission is that she must definitely cook. I don’t cook dinners even if I’m at home. The child eats at school, the family cooks something for themselves for lunch, and since I now work in the office, I dine out.

In the evening we can go out to dinner together if there is no time at all. In general, the child himself can fry scrambled eggs, make a sandwich. I bought a multicooker that does everything by itself. In the morning I put everything in it, I press a button, it waits, and after a certain time it starts cooking itself. The child comes home from school, and he has hot soup or porridge ready.

If funds allow, I would probably advise you to use qualified help. Now I’m looking for someone to help me clean up. It seems to me that we should take on less of something, if possible, shift the responsibilities to others. I don’t have any planning, I travel a lot, we often travel with a child.

Sometimes this can be to the detriment of dinners, but we have long been accustomed to. We eat quite simply, I don’t “cook” any roasts, everything is simple. I think everyone does this, I’m not the only one.

I’ve always managed, I wouldn’t say it was very difficult. If necessary, I took the child with me. We had a sling, I didn’t even use a stroller. When my son got older, he got used to traveling with me, for example, to reportages. Of course, he groans, which is not interesting, but sometimes you have to travel with me to work. The child sees how I work, how I interview. I try to show him where and how my colleagues work, so that he understands that my mother is not just sitting at the computer, but she is working, writing articles. That there is such work.

Alena Sheremet, TUT.by journalist

– There are no universal tips. Everyone has so many nuances that you just need to approach the conditions that exist with your brain, always remaining a person.

Of course, my conditions are not ideal, in the sense that no one cleans every day, there is not always something to eat, but, nevertheless, everything works out. There is always a question regarding the family and children – it is a matter of trust in a partner, the ability to understand each other, respect and treat each other normally – no more, no less.

Motherhood and career: how to combine

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Motherhood and career: how to combine

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• children in the family
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It is not at all necessary to give up work and limit your life to household duties. In addition to financial security, your favorite business gives you the opportunity to implement your ideas, communicate with like-minded people, develop and create. That is why a mother “with a profession” is interesting to her children, because they always have the opportunity to learn something new and exciting from her.

1. Master your planning skills. Time management for a working mother becomes a vital tool. If earlier you could afford to “surrender to the flow of life”, now “plan for the day / week / month”, “ability to prioritize” from boring business terms should move into the category of useful habits. In the day of a working mother, like everyone else, there are 24 hours, and learning how to distribute them wisely is already half the battle. Many good works are devoted to the art of planning (for example, Ekaterina Burmistrova’s book “Family Time Management”) and there are even entire communities where experienced business mothers exchange their secrets.

2. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. Perfectionism or the fear that “I will be considered lazy” often prevents us from seeking help. However, the position “I’d rather do everything myself” is not an option, this is exactly the case when you need to use all available resources to help. Try not to load your schedule with “extra” things and take on “everything and even more”. If you have the opportunity to ask grandparents to meet a child from kindergarten / school, send your eldest daughter to the store for bread, teach your youngest son how to load dishes into the dishwasher – be sure to use this. Distribute responsibilities among all family members, and of course, learn to say “no” if you are uncomfortable doing something.

3. Find the right job with a convenient schedule. Changing jobs is stressful and it’s always easier to say “it’s impossible”. However, with the development of technology, there are many opportunities for remote work and part-time work. You just need to decide on it and consider all the suitable options. Of course, the ideal situation is if before maternity leave you have already established yourself as a reliable employee and you will be gladly accepted back, adjusting the schedule. There are many examples when working mothers managed to agree to finish the working day no later than 18 hours, even where it is customary to “spend the night at work”. Everything is within your power.

4. Take good care of yourself and your health. This item is perhaps the most important, although many working mothers neglect it due to lack of time. A tired mother who dreams of “everyone leaving her behind” is unlikely to be able to find resources for her family. Children take a lot of strength and energy, and this energy needs to be taken from somewhere. If there is no time for yourself in the schedule of a working mother, then there is a high probability of facing very unpleasant consequences – chronic fatigue, emotional burnout, depression, and these are not conditions that are treated simply by sleep. Therefore, it is very important to track the very first symptoms of fatigue and not ignore them. Set boundaries, don’t let work issues “pull” you around the clock, don’t give up vacations, find an opportunity to get enough sleep. If you are tired, your loved ones should also understand this. For example, kids can warm up their breakfast on a Sunday morning and watch a good movie while you sleep. Time to rest and recover, pays off many times over.

5. Set aside at least 15 minutes each day to be alone with your child. If a child knows that you are guaranteed to spend time with him, which you will devote only to him, putting aside all business and mobile phones (doing homework does not count), he will be more relaxed about your busyness. You can play a game that the child will offer, chat, just lie on the couch in an embrace – let the child decide how he wants to spend “his time”. A very good tradition of joint evening dinners or tea parties, when everyone gathers at the same table and everyone tells how his day went. All this creates a solid foundation for trusting relationships with children, which even working parents can build.

Balancing between home and work is not easy, but it can be learned.