the new york times had this article today about pregnant surgeons.
they talk a lot about the issues, and i found the comments even more interesting than the article. as a female surgeon you might think i would have a strong opinion on this subject, but i'm not sure i do. i can tell you what i think personally, but i'm not sure i have anything very insightful to say that can be generalized to female surgeons in general.
for me personally, i never would have considered getting pregnant during residency. it is hard enough as it is, and i am not even sure i ever want to have children, so it wasn't a hard decision. however, there are times that i think maybe my thoughts around children are shaped by my career choice. i chose to become a surgeon knowing i would have to sacrifice many of the things i wanted during training, and that it would be a time of relatively delayed gratification. surgical training is rigorous, and at the same time, every day is important. it is hard to learn all we need to even in the five long years of eighty hour workweeks. with only five months left to go i'm worried i don't have enough time left. i really can't imagine if i had taken 3 months off.
i do however know that it can be done. there have been two women (ever) in my residency program to be pregnant during training and they have both been during my time in residency. it wasn't easy for them, but they both had a strong desire to have children and got pregnant knowing it would be difficult.
it was also difficult for the rest of us, we worked more while they were out on leave. in fact, i would be lying if i said i never resented that. i know they weren't sitting at home with their feet up, but it is never easy to work more while someone else is working less, even if it is in the name of a cute precious baby.
i don't have the answer, do you?
6 comments:
When I was a 3rd year med student, my surgery chief was very pregnant and due any day. There were 60 days left of residency for her and she hadn't taken a day of vacation all year and saved her 2 weeks off for after the baby was born. That day, she did morning rounds, walking down 12 flights of stairs, and was in the OR all day. I remember walking in to an OR and she was up to her elbows in gastric bypass, bending over both the pt's and her own gigantic belly. Before afternoon rounds, all the girls on the team arrived first and she told us she wouldn't be there tomorrow because she was having contractions every 8 minutes. We then proceded to round and sure enough, every 8 minutes, she would take a little breath and look at her watch. After rounds, we told the guys and they didn't believe us. She had her baby a few hours later and was back at work 2 weeks later. She took no more days off than any other resident who took vacation that year and yet the surgery department was so mad at her for having a baby. I think she is one bad ass surgery momma and have no doubt that none of those men surgeons could have done rounds with contractions, much less made it to work 2 weeks after giving birth.
You only have 4 more months, not 5...
Also, I'm content with just having a doghter to raise with our schedules.
Hi Sarah :) I have read your blog for long time with pleassure and I'm sorry for my poor English. In my country (Poland) for some doctors it's hard to imagine thet woman can be a surgeon and in every step we hear we should be a pediatrician, an ophthalmologist or dermatologist. I know a few women who are doing surgical residency, but only one of them has two childern. She is 33 and she didn,t finish her residency yet because of metarnity leave. We have 6-years surgical residency program and she is in the half-way. In my opinion it's better to wait with pregnancy until finishing residency. Anna :)
Hi! I am Andrea from Hungary. I am a surgery resident. Two days ago I was talking with my colleagues about this. Here they would be very understanding, but the problem is, it is not really allowed, for your own safety to go into the OR during pregnancy. But residency or not, I think 9 months outside the OR is just extremely hard. I had a colleague whom started her Phd during this time. I don´t really know how I will deal with this. Ok, I don´t really know if I want kids or not.
Here's what bothers me in this debate: one of our male residents recently had a baby and took two weeks leave. None had any problems with it and everyone oooh'ed and aaah'ed over pics and what a caring father he was for staying home a bit and how lucky his wife was for his support. If I had taken two weeks for a baby of mine (and to recover from childbirth) I'd be the non-committed and selfish one.
Wow. This is a hard one. I'm an internist and a mom, so my perspective is quite different. I have an opinion but realize that since I'm not a surgeon (and am well out of training) it may not be as relatable.
Post a Comment