No matter what anyone says, it is harder for women in medicine when compared to men. I am not even talking about the struggles of getting into medical school or residency/fellowship, that is a discussion for another day. I am talking about the other elephant in the room – childbearing. It is a proven fact that women in medicine have higher rates of infertility than the average woman as we wait till we are well into out late 20s or even 30s to try to conceive. Knowing this we started trying as soon as I turned 30. After a couple of months of trying, I found out I was pregnant in my last year of medical training. It was the most exciting news, we were so grateful. However I quickly had to figure out how I was going to finish my training on time, take a very important exam that year and also have a healthy pregnancy. And most importantly enjoy it! Here are some tips from my experience which I hope helps others.
- Maternity Leave: As of academic year 2022-2023 ACGME mandates programs to grant 6 weeks of maternity leave(https://www.acgme.org/newsroom/blog/2022/acgme-answers-resident-leave-policies/). Talk to your program director and chief resident/fellow as soon as possible. It is completely understandable that you probably don’t want to share the news with the world till your second trimester but definitely consider bringing it up to the program leadership and they need time to figure out the schedule. When planning your year consider requesting busier rotations in the second trimester as this is when the symptoms of morning sickness wane a little bit and you are not at the full glory of pregnancy making it hard to move. Research, electives would be great towards the end of pregnancy. I personally requested research time towards my third trimester which was a perfect way to transition to maternity leave.
- Nauseous, hungry and tired: If I had to sum up my pregnancy in three words they would be – nauseous, hungry and tired. Morning sickness is a misnomer as you might have heard, it is all day sickness. Have snacks, anti nausea candy on hand especially in the first trimester. I loved preggie pop drops for nausea, you can find them on amazon. I always had some in my Patagonia jacket pockets. I was also super hungry in the first trimester and always needed to be munching on something, this helped with my nausea too. I used to keep nut bars, organic fruit bars in my handbag for a quick snack. The fatigue persisted throughout my pregnancy. Try to sneak in power naps whenever you can. I managed to ditch my car and started taking public transport instead to get to work. This helped me unbelievably in conserving some energy. I completely outsourced cooking and had a meal delivery service as I could not stand the smell of cooking.
- Food and Exercise: Listen to your body! I used to see pregnant women going to the gym, doing relaxing yoga classes all over instagram. Being completely honest, i would have loved to do prenatal yoga but I was working 60 hours a week. I was on my feet constantly, which I am sure most pregnant women in medicine are. So when I got home I prioritized getting sleep instead of hitting the gym or trying to get to a yoga class. Cut yourself some slack. Aiming to eat healthy for the baby and you is the goal. But only a pregnant women knows what she is able to tolerate during pregnancy. So if you are throwing up all day and are able to only keep pasta down, eat the pasta. Of course if you have gestational diabetes, please follow your OBGYN’s guidance. This is not medical advise, I am only sharing my experience here.
- Comfortable and cute clothing: Towards the end of first trimester you reach that point where you do not look pregnant, instead you just feel bloated and nothing fits! This pushed me to get myself some maternity clothes and scrubs, and that changed the game. There are many companies now that sell maternity scrubs, I went with the figs ones. Seraphine maternity has some beautiful maternity pieces. The great thing about maternity wear is, it makes you look pregnant instead of just large. They give definition and support to your growing belly, and made me fall in love with my bump. Sure you can buy larger size normal clothes but I wanted to feel cuter as it really uplifted my mood in the midst of all the physical and hormonal changes that were happening.
- Prepare for birth plan deviations: My entire pregnancy was pretty unremarkable. Baby was healthy, normal size and position. My OBGYN had no concerns about me needing a C section. However I did not progress at term and needed to be induced. I failed induction and needed a C section. I wish I had prepared myself mentally for that. I knew anything was possible but I think I could have been better prepared. I will do another detailed post about what I would recommend to be prepared for a C section. All I want to say is keep an open mind. Also if your hospital does not have a neonatal ICU, find out where the nearest one is. Our baby needed to be in NICU for observation for a few days and thankfully our hospital had a NICU. It would have been painful if we had to move the baby to another hospital which I was recovering from a C section.
