Tina Bitangcol spends her days doing what she loves: when the Edmonton woman is not working as a registered nurse in labour and delivery, she’s sharing her passion for all things pre- and post-partum to millions of followers online as the comedic, enlightening Mama Nurse Tina.
“What I have become really passionate about is educating and teaching people how to advocate and decrease birth trauma and have a more knowledgeable, positive birth experience,” the mother of four said.
“I love talking about it — I could talk about it all day.”
She didn’t intend to become a well of information, but by chance and in the trenches of motherhood, Bitangcol discovered there was an appetite for evidence-based pregnancy and childrearing advice.
“I actually started with mom comedy and then I put up, I think, one video about labour and delivery and childbirth — and it went pretty big.”
It was her lightbulb moment.
“There’s this huge need for information in this day and age. And I was like, ‘You have the information. You have a really fun way to deliver it. People seem to really relate to it.’
“I just sort of ran with it.”
That was in 2022.
Bitangcol started on TikTok, before adding accounts on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube — the latter of which she said is her favourite.
“It’s an incredible platform for sort of longform, really, really good information for people to grab on to and watch through and have that to prepare for their birth.”
Mama Nurse Tina is not about euphemisms or flowery “what to expect when you’re expecting” language, as Bitangcol calls it.
She’s honest, blunt, and funny.
“For me, that ‘what to expect,’ that flowery stuff, when I was pregnant — I’ve been pregnant four times — was kind of a snoozefest for me,” she said. “I really enjoy adding the comedy in there, to allow more people to relate to it and utilize that information to have an empowered birth.”
Mama Nurse Tina tells women they will poop themselves during delivery (“You don’t need to apologize. This happens all the time!“) and that they do not need to worry about looking put together.
“It is not a beauty contest. If you come in and your legs are not shaved, your toenails are not perfectly manicured and your woohoo is not trimmed into a perfect do — girl! Me neither and I am not nine months pregnant!” she tells followers in one of her videos.
It’s the relatable, no-nonsense, tongue-in-cheek humour that Bitangcol said many parents-to-be are seeking as they embark on a life-changing journey no one can truly understand until they are in it.
“Pregnancy and labour is scary for a lot of people. If you haven’t done it, you haven’t been around it, it can be really scary,” she said.
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She said bringing a bit of humour into the situation can help people relate and digest the information they are seeking.
“They feel comfortable listening to it as opposed to being like, ‘Oh my God, what am I learning about?’ So that’s why I put the comedy in there. And also — that’s my personality.”
It’s clearly working. Her Mama Nurse Tina accounts have a large following: 513,000 on TikTok, 360,000 on Facebook, 352,000 on YouTube, and 245,000 on Instagram. Combined, it’s over 1.5 million subscribers.
As is the case with all content creators in Canada, she does not receive any money from TikTok (Canadians are ineligible for the platform’s lucrative creator fund that pays out people in places like the United States.) She said she also doesn’t get money from Instagram.
“So you’re basically just giving your time and your effort without any financial gains. Once you’re able to sort of create partnerships with brands, then you’re able to bring in money that way. But for views itself, it’s a non-paid gig.
“It’s just a labour of love.”
She does, however, make money from views off YouTube and Facebook.
Bitangcol started nursing 17 years ago in the emergency room — where her physician husband still works — before transitioning over to labour and delivery.
She went to a casual schedule once their kids arrived, explaining with child care and her husband’s shift work, picking up shifts here and there was the best move for their family life.
It now also gives Bitangcol time to create content for Mama Nurse Tina — a gig she says is more financially lucrative than nursing ever could be.
She uploads a video each day, and said there was a learning curve to determine what worked and what didn’t.
“I found that our attention spans are so, so short that you really have to grab somebody in those first few seconds to actually have them engage with the video.
“Your video could be amazing (but) if you don’t grab them in that first little bit, they’re just going to scroll on to the next.”
For Bitangcol, creating engaging content starts with good quality lighting and sound, plus an aesthetic people are drawn to. That said, she records most of her content in a corner under her basement stairs.
“I think anybody can do it, if you have your own personality and your own shtick and you have a little bit of space — my studio is teeny tiny,” she said.
“If you have something to say and you can say it with your whole chest, then get out there and do it.”
So what are her viewers most interested in?
“A lot of videos that I do about birth trauma usually go fairly viral and I put a lot of effort into those videos because they’re super important to me. I think it’s really important to talk about those things.”
Other topics her viewers relate to range from how to go to the washroom after having a baby — a process involving peri bottles, mesh underwear, ice packs and overnight pads, witch hazel wipes and numbing sprays or creams — to simply how to change a baby’s diaper.
“People are eating that up and you think this is common knowledge, but it’s really not.
“Unless you’ve done it — and that’s the same with anything in childbirth — unless you’ve done that thing before, it’s a completely new area for people.”
Her biggest demographic, not surprisingly, is women aged 18 to 44. Bitangcol said she occasionally gets recognized when out and about in the Edmonton area.
“It’s been the wildest ride,” she laughed. “I’ll run into people and they’ll be like, ‘Do I know you?’ And I’ll be like, ‘Are you pregnant? Did you just have a baby?’ And they’ll be like, ‘Oh yeah!’”
Her biggest advice for first-time parents: do your research and be prepared. Read the books, watch videos like hers, pick the brains of fellow parents, and the biggest of all, take pre-natal courses.
“It’s really beneficial to give you that foundation of understanding as to what’s happening in your body,” she said.
“Surround yourself with really positive people who are there to support you — not just to watch you have a baby — and then just take information in about positive experiences.”
Beyond educating others, Bitangcol said she’s made some of her best friendships by being a parenting content creator.
“I’ve met like-minded women who are passionate, who love what they do as well, who are out there to genuinely help people have a better birthing experience.”
She now works full-time as a content creator but Bitangcol said nursing is still her main passion. Plus, she feels in order to maintain credibility with her viewers, she needs to be an active, working health-care professional — even if only on a casual basis right now due to her family’s hectic schedule.
“To feel like it really matters, I want to be able to say I am a bedside nurse,” she said. “I don’t think I would ever give that up completely.”
Beyond the daily videos, Bitangcol does public speaking about birth trauma, has launched a website and is putting together two courses on breastfeeding and pre-natal education.
“I have a lot of passion projects and it’s really cool to have the time in my life to explore them.
“I am super grateful. I feel super blessed.”
