Having first child during glide year?

[PsychStudent]

I will be getting married in a few months and be applying to start med school in the fall of 2009. I'm on the young side for a nontraditional student (23), but we're thinking of having our first child either during my glide year or 4th year of med school. My fiance will be a 3rd year next year, he'd be an M4 or in 4th year of residency when we had our first child.

The pros of having a child during the glide year are that I could basically be a stay-at-home mom for much of my child's first year of life, which has always been very appealing to me. Has anyone ever had a child during this time? When is the best time (to the extent pregnancy can be planned) to give birth so that one can still attend interviews? Or do you think it's a better idea to wait until my 4th year, even though I would probably only get a few weeks of leave then? I have heard of people taking a year off between med school and residency, which is also appealing.

Thanks so much!

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[Catalystik]

I have heard of people taking a year off between med school and residency, which is also appealing.

A friend of mine took a year off between medical school and her first year of residency. She loved being totally available to her baby. Considering how addicting she found parenting to be, it's fortunate she chose a low-key residency in family practice where it was the norm to take call from home. Her spouse, while in a medically related field, has a day job, and so is available if she needs to go into the hospital on rare occasions. She also has in-laws available for day-time daycare.

I started my family during the end of my last year of residency, an option that worked well for my situation in which I had no available family to help out, but would soon have a private-practice income to better afford private daycare.

 

[mshheaddoc]

I'm going to move this to Women in Healthcare where this might be better suited for more responses

 

[PTPoeny]

Hi,

I don't have kids, but hope to soonish. There are a number of women in my class that had children right before first year or between first and second year and they are managing with various levels of family help. The nice thing about first and second years is that there is not a whole lot of required time. Therefore you can be home on just about any day if you child is sick. I am good friends with one woman and she actually does all of her studying after the baby is in bed so she gets to be with her child most afternoons and she still gets very good grades.

The one reason I do not want to wait until fourth year is because the next year I will be an intern and not get to see my less than 1 year old baby very much. If you do it during the glide year they will be old enough to start preschool by the time you have a really busy schedule.

Just my thoughts....

 

[lilnoelle]

Personally, I'd say wait till fourth year. Neither will be easy, but I think med school would definitely be easier without a child (I have two young ones and am a M1). Although I love my kids, they definitely make it more difficult to get things done that I need to for school. My kids will both be in school by the time I'm in residency and they will definitely be a little easy to care for at that point in time (no diapers, dress themselves, etc) but I think my absense in my intern year will be harder on my kids (who will be 5 and 7) than it would on a newborn.
Of course one can't exactly plan these things perfectly, but if you can give birth in April or so, you can have a few months off with your baby (hopefully long enough so its sleeping through the night) before intern year starts.

 

[jsnuka]

What is a "glide" year?

 

[mshheaddoc]

Glide year is the year you are applying. Since some choose not to apply their senior year or might be finishing up another program then apply that summer. It also applies to those non-trad candidates.

 

[AtreyuRocks]

Personally, I'd say wait till fourth year. Neither will be easy, but I think med school would definitely be easier without a child (I have two young ones and am a M1). Although I love my kids, they definitely make it more difficult to get things done that I need to for school. My kids will both be in school by the time I'm in residency and they will definitely be a little easy to care for at that point in time (no diapers, dress themselves, etc) but I think my absense in my intern year will be harder on my kids (who will be 5 and 7) than it would on a newborn.
Of course one can't exactly plan these things perfectly, but if you can give birth in April or so, you can have a few months off with your baby (hopefully long enough so its sleeping through the night) before intern year starts.

My colleagues are all much older than me and have experience in this area so I can share some of their experiences. My friend's sister had her 1st child right in between M4 (SLU) and residency (early match opthalmology at if it matters). It probably helped that her husband was already in family practice thus he could lend time to help with the baby.

My other friend's wife had her babies during residency (final score: 1 girl, 3 boys). She apparently did a part time residency with Kaiser (in SD, CA) which allowed her time to take care of her children. (I personally am not a fan of Kaiser, but I hear they are great at lending these types of options to women in healthcare... maybe other institutions are too?) Part-time residency however, means taking much longer to finish residency (5 years for family medicine?). As a 35 year old family medicine physician with 4 children under the age of 5 (6 months, 1.5 years, 3 years, 4.5 years), she currently works part-time so she can continue to spend time with her children. Her husband is a PhD, so he is flexible with his time.