Does prenatal care have a future?

Overall, the development space of the prenatal care track is considerable, but not everyone can reap the dividends. Whether there is a future essentially depends on personal ability and choice. There is no absolute win.

I know a friend who works as a prenatal care guide at a private obstetrics and gynecology hospital in Hangzhou. He was a nurse in a tertiary obstetrics department. After he came out, he passed the internationally certified lactation consultant and pregnancy exercise instructor qualifications. Not only can he do routine nutritional planning and weight management, but he can also do daily monitoring of high-risk pregnancies and personalized intervention for gestational diabetes. Now he regularly serves more than 20 pregnant mothers every month, and he can earn more than 30,000 yuan with a monthly salary increase, not counting the occasional online consultation orders. In the past two years, everyone's awareness of eugenics and eugenics has increased so fast. In the past, most pregnancies were just allowed to take their own course. Now, from folic acid supplementation and physical conditioning during the pregnancy preparation stage, to prevention and control of complications during pregnancy, emotional counseling, to prenatal delivery rehearsals and lactation preparations, every step is taken care of. There is a real demand. I went to a local public tertiary-level obstetrics and gynecology hospital a while ago for research. The prenatal care appointments for special needs outpatient clinics have been scheduled for 3 months. Many pregnant mothers would rather spend several times more money and find a regular nurse to follow up throughout the process, for fear of something going wrong.

But if you ask if anyone thinks this industry has no future, there are too many. A while ago, a young girl who had just changed her career came to me to complain. She said that she had worked in a small obstetrics and gynecology institution in her hometown for two years and earned just over 4,000 yuan a month. Her daily job was to measure the weight and blood pressure of pregnant mothers who came for prenatal check-ups, and to hand out popular science manuals. My mother asked some in-depth questions, such as whether it was okay if the umbilical blood flow was high, and how to adjust the diet if the glucose tolerance was not passed. She couldn't answer it at all, so she had to ask the family to find a doctor. After a long time, she felt that this job had no sense of existence, let alone a salary increase. And it is true that the industry is not yet fully regulated. Many small institutions sell high-priced maternal health care products and pregnancy courses with no practical effect under the guise of prenatal care. You can’t learn anything real after entering. After two or three years, your enthusiasm is exhausted, and you naturally feel that there is no future.

In fact, to put it bluntly, the threshold of this industry is soft, the lower limit is very low, but the upper limit is really high. It is a bit like opening a community fruit shop. Some people can only earn some hard money by selling currency, while some can make high-end boutique customization and private door-to-door services, making a lot of money. There is also a nurse beside me. She has devoted herself to prenatal psychological counseling in the past two years. Now she focuses on emotional intervention during pregnancy. Many pregnant mothers with prenatal depression tend to come to her for counseling. Word of mouth has spread. Her appointment has been scheduled for half a year, and her fees are much higher than ordinary nurses.

I have seen people who have made a living by buying houses in this industry, and I have also seen people who have worked in this industry for three or four months and then changed careers and ran away. In the final analysis, prospects are always reserved for those who are prepared. If you are interested in the maternal and infant industry, are willing to devote yourself to acquiring professional knowledge, take relevant qualifications, and can actually solve the pain points of pregnant mothers, then this path will definitely work. If you just want to find a 9-to-5 job that doesn't use your brain, then there is no future in any industry, let alone prenatal care.