<p>Of course. You have to use common sense. If you are alone during your surgical residency, you are not going to be able to have a kid. That’s obvious. But, what is the alternative? To become a nurse? I would never change my career aspirations, change what I’m going to do for the next 40 years of my life, because of my desire to have children. If you want a kid or two by the time you hit 33, it can be done. And it will be much more worth it than settling for another career.</p>
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<p>It’s called pumping.</p>
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<p>I don’t know what it’s like to be pregnant but I do what it’s like to be in medicine. This is the culture of medicine. You suck it up. You come to work sick. You come to work when you fracture your femoral head (which is what happened to one of my classmates). You come to work when you’re pregnant. It’s not necessarily right but this is what medicine is. You have to make sacrifices. Yes, you may be one of the rare people to get constant morning sickness in all 37 weeks of pregnancy. Or you can be like the rest of the normal people who gets nausea in the mornings for a few weeks in the first and 2nd trimesters. Are you prepared to change what you’re going to do for the rest of your life because of some MORNING SICKNESS? Laughable.</p>
<p>If you want to be a doctor, then you should be a doctor. If you want to be a nurse, then be a nurse. But, being a nurse is nothing like being a doctor. PA’s and NP’s function perfunctorily like doctors but the kinds of cases they see and the kind of responsibility they hold do not match up. We’re not in the 1960’s anymore. Females can be successful physicians AND parents, particularly if they end up going into a lifestyle specialty (like radiology or derm or whatever).</p>
<p>^my mom got pregnant in the middle of her PhD and had no choice but to take time off. She was completely bedridden and could not even keep down water. She eventually had to be hospitalized and on an IV. You can’t always just “suck it up.” I also found that comment incredibly insensitive.</p>
<p>But I do agree that OP shouldn’t compromise her entire career for the sake of a theoretical husband and children.</p>
<p>You must love your job. If you personally do not love your job, it is not good for anybody around you, family memebers, friends,…etc, they will feel it, your dissatisfaction with your job will spill on them. So, I would advise to think from this prospective. Overall coming from very old person (like me), if you do not take care of yourself, your ability to take care of others is diminished greatly. That is how I have lived my life, I do not see another way. I have changed my profession to become much happier person and to provide more happiness to people around me.</p>
<p>Well I know it’s definitely possible. My nephew is a Urologist and his wife is a OB/GYN. She had their first baby in her last year of residency. I would estimate her age at the time to be 29. I don’t know if they could be any busier with both being doctors and they seemed to make it work.</p>
<p>Frankly, my cousin had TWO babies while in med school, so I’m not saying that it can’t be done. She didn’t have “issues” with either and her mom lived in town and helped out. Her H was also in med school so also very busy.</p>
<p>I don’t know if it would be “easier in the long run” to have a baby during last year of residency than last year of med school. My guess would be that having a baby during last year of residency would be better. </p>
<p>However, if it were ME, I would wait til I was done with my education because there are too many unknowns (twins run in my family as well). I wouldn’t want to risk any “issues”. </p>
<p>The whole pregnancy/career issue isn’t something that men really have to fret about. I can remember worrying that if I got pregnant or gave birth “at the wrong time” and my company was having a lay-off, that I might get chosen…which a company CAN do if they are laying off a number of employees. My H never had to worry about that. </p>
<p>And…yes…I know all about “pumping” (and remember the pain, too). That said, pumping isn’t as easy as one thinks…even with the duo ones that seem almost turbo charged. ;)</p>
<p>And…I didn’t say that someone should choose another career just so that they could have a baby during what would have been their med school years. </p>
<p>As for my earlier comments about it being easier to be a PA or NP. I still believe that. Yes, another option can be to do what Wowmom and I mentioned about becoming a MD and working part-time while the kids are young. That would also work well for a number of women.</p>
<h1>Norcalguy: Are you prepared to change what you’re going to do for the rest of your life because of some MORNING SICKNESS? Laughable.</h1>
<p>I hope the above isn’t an example of how you normally reach conclusions…cuz that would be scary.</p>
<p>I never said that someone should change what they’ll do for the rest of their life because of MORNING SICKNESS. If anything, the concern about having a complication would just mean DELAYING pregnancy until after education.</p>
<p>C’mon, it is not convinient being pregnant no matter what you do. I had horrible cramps my whole second pregnancy. I basically was laying in my chair at work, but at least I did not need to be standing. In such a case, I would not be able to and my doc. said to rest as much as possible, I was not allowed to exercise / walk. But nothing was helping, I was in pain all 9 months. I mised only 1 day of work, the day before delivery. You do what you have to, but if you cannot continue doing your normal activity, then baby comes first, baby is priority #1, so you have to quit everything else, and I heard that Med. Schools are accomodating cases like that. Frankly, morning sickness is NOT a biggy in comperison to some other complications, but we should always hope for the best…</p>
<p>Morning sickness (morning quesiness) may not be a biggie. I was talking about something a friend and a SIL experienced…which was 24 hour barfing, becoming dehydrated, losing ridiculous amounts of weight, needing to be hospitalized/IVs, etc. These gals couldn’t even bring themselves to dress. </p>
<p>But, you’re right…pregnancy is rarely “convenient”…lol…but that’s why I would wait til after med school and maybe after residency…or maybe time it for last year of residency. Pregnancy can just be too “iffy”…it can be a cakewalk for some…and it can be a barfy nightmare or “ordered to bed” for some others. Since it can be an unknown, I would wait til I was done with school …whether that was med school, nursing school, PA school, or whatever.</p>
<p>Just make sure to have a kid while your body is young and OK. 20s are better than 40s and sometime the chance is gone, period, while Med. School can wait, I heard that you can take time off and then re-enter, Med. Schools are accomodating their students needs, they have invested much resources into them, they want to see them finish whatever it takes.</p>
<p>Good point! The longer you wait, the more chances for infertility issues. The female who goes into med school at 22…then graduates 4 years later can worry less about her bio clock than someone who starts med school at age 25.</p>
<p>Pregnancy is never convenient. I was definitely not trying to downplay the hardships of pregnancy. But, you gotta work during pregnancy. It’s rare for someone to take 9 months off when they get pregnant. In my opinion, due to the reforms with medical school and with residency, it is very possible to have a child during the 4th year of medical school, during PhD years if you’re MD/PhD, during research years if you take 1-2 years off to do research, or during residency. Obviously, if you get hyperemesis gravidarum, then you won’t be going to work whether you work as a doctor or as a janitor. But, if you have an average pregnancy with average pregnancy inconveniences, you can still function as a resident or as a medical student.</p>
Didn’t you say you refused to have a colonoscopy or mammogram or something? If you TRULY believe in taking care of yourself first. PLEASE have a mammogram and a colonoscopy.</p>
<p>As for the OP, gee, I thought I got ahead of myself! LOL. You are way planning ahead. Lots can change between now and career/professional school/marriage/parenthood. You are only in HS. Take one step at a time. And FWIW, I had my kids at 33 and 37. They are fine and so am I. And so is my professional life. You can make it work when the time comes.</p>
<p>Going back to original post: medicine and nursing are two very different fields. Also, keep in mind it’s incredibly difficult to get into medical school-the sort of thing that most people have to focus on that goal completely. So it seems the decision is: do you want to dedicate yourself to getting into medical school? If the answer is “yes” then I’d strongly suggest that you contact a women’s physicians (did I get the plurals correct?) group in your state and go talk to them. There are groups dedicated to women in medicine, and you’ll get a lot of direct talk from them, in person. BUT you need to decide first if you want to do what it takes to get into medical school. And don’t take my word for it-get a copy of the MSR or similar, or go to med school websites-many will tell you how many apply and how many get in.</p>
<p>I agree with Cranky that nursing is very different from medicine. But, I don’t think becoming a NP or PA is vastly different. PAs and NPs diagnore and prescribe (correct me if I’m wrong). They have patients that make appts with them, etc. While these careers aren’t “the same”, they are beyond being a RN.</p>
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I think a very important consideration is making sure that you have a spouse that will REALLY do a fair-share of the home responsibilites. And, I don’t just mean someone who believes that s/he might share the duties. There are “well-intentioned” people who truly think they’d be willing to fairly split duties, but when the time comes they find the chores to be more than they bargained for. So, look for someone who is already good about doing chores (and doing them well), as a single person.</p>
<p>^Frankly, having both of us working full time all the time and never taking any time off for kids, I can tell you that you can hire for many house chores. Having undertanding spouse is what it taekds to have any marriage working, but it may not involve assigning chores. If we could afford hiring than I can imagine that family with at least one MD can do so also. I actually know some MD’s families with non-working spouse who still hire house cleanning and the rest just as we do. We got used to that so much, that we never went back to doing anything at home ourselves. We do not own vacuum cleaner, grass mower and as more recent development, “grass” people are coming to shovel our snow in a winter. Everything is at such reasonable price that it is not even worth while doing yourself. As a bonus, it makes me feel good that I provide employment for somebody else especially in hard economic times.
BTW, somebody told me about very happy family of two MDs …with 5 kids. Apparently, could work and I cannot imagine that they do everything themselves.</p>
<p>Miami…I totally get that. I’ve had a housekeeper for years. But, I can tell you that a housekeeper (unless she’s a live in) doesn’t do the “daily stuff”. Mine mostly does the "heavy cleaning. She comes in once a week (whole house every other week, and downstairs every week). </p>
<p>But…She’s not there to clean up the kitchen every day after cooking or wipe down counters…or even do laundry (altho I know that laundry can be sent out, but that’s pricey). And, she certainly didn’t do any of the child-care related stuff. </p>
<p>That’s what I was talking about. If you’re just going to have the more typical “housekeeper comes in weekly” sort of thing, then you better have a spouse who will pitch in and do a fair share. Working women aren’t lying when they say that they come home to their “second job”. </p>
<p>Yes…I also know a couple where both are MDs with 4 kids (2 born while in med school!). They have 2 full time live-ins (rotating schedules) so that all bases (child/chores/cooking) are covered 24/7… I agree that many MDs can afford that sort of thing. We’re not MDs so that option would not have been available. lol</p>