Crossposted from my own blog.
We held a fantastic event at our medical school Wednesday night. We were a little disappointed in the student turn out, but otherwise, it was wonderful. We had a panel of eight female physicians speaking about being a woman in medicine. Seven of the eight are mothers, so there was a lot of discussion about pregnancy, babies and family. I was happy with the diversity of our panel. We had one Chinese doctor, a few hispanics, a lesbian (who humorously advised us to wait until menopause and then let our partner carry the baby), a few Jewish doctors, and only two WASPs like me. Unfortunately, the two black doctors (I don't like the term African American, which rarely applies to the frequently Caribbean born blacks in South Florida) who we invited were not able to attend, and neither were the Indian doctors. We are blessed with a diverse pool of professors and physicians associated with our school.
I wish we videotaped or had transcripts of the discussion. We got great advice, from having a fire drill-like plan of what to do if we get groped by a patient or a fellow physician (which has happened to members of the panel), to how to answer (or not answer) illegal questions in interviews about how soon we were planning on getting pregnant, how to manage when our kids our sick, and other wonderful bits of information and experience.
The next morning, I was driving 4 year old Z to school. He was sitting next to the big contraption the catering company rented to me to keep the food warm for the event. He was confused, somehow thinking it was for me to bring food to the people at the hospital. I explained to him that I was still in school to learn to be a doctor, then I would go to the hospital to help people.
Z paused for a second and then asked, thoughtfully, "When you are a doctor and you go to the doctor place, will you still be my mommy?"
"Yes," I said. "I will always be your mommy."
"Will you still come home to me?"
Oh, kid, you're killing me. "Yes, I will still come home to you." In my head, I was thinking, sometimes, during residency, it may seem like I don't. But I will always come home, eventually. When all the babies are born, all the sutures are closed, all the cases are presented, I will come home. And I will try to find out about your homework and listen to you and hug you and kiss you before I collapse into bed.
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That's really sweet. Thanks for sharing it.
i'm interested to know what you and other doctors you know think about childbirth and the medical establishment in the US. i think a lot of doctors/medical students are either oblivious or illogically hostile to the idea of midwives and home birthing, when in fact those policies could improve OB/GYN services in america. all i hear in my class is complaining about the "malpractice climate," and i try not to say much because i haven't gained the experience, but i think many OB/GYNs bring on the lawsuits with their patronizing behavior of patients.
i'm looking forward to going through your own blog too, but as u must know, first year med students don't have much time!
Well, check out my blog. You will be pleasantly surprised. I had both of my sons with midwives, and the best births I have ever been to were homebirths. I trained as a midwife for two years. I hope to eventually work with midwives and support birth center and homebirths.
I think evidence based medicine supports less interventions, and if doctors practiced according to that evidence, there would be less lawsuits.
I really liked the book "Pushed" if you are interested in reading more about the sad state of maternity care in the United States.
Oh, BTW, I hate to always explain myself. I am the original poster. I have asked them to fix this, but they haven't yet. My display name should be "Hilary" on the blog post, too. I don't know why they are using my "user name" which should not be displayed. So, I am the one who wrote the original post, even though the name is different.