Love to deliver...

[ici_cute]

...hate to be in OT. Hope you guys can give some advice.

I thought I wanted to do Obstetric. I hated Obgyn when I was a student, maybe because I wasn't exposed to the real work. But eversince I did rotation in Obs, I can't shut my mind off it even after almost 2 years leaving that area doing other rotations (as an intern). I love delivering babies. Sometimes I wonder, why didn't I just be a midwife. Spending time in OT doing CS is still fine with me, I think I have a pretty good mechanical hands. So I finally considered subspecializing in feto-maternal medicine...and endure my residency with gynae rotation. But would I be delivering babies then? Or would i just attend to emergencies? Or should I do fertility medicine...so I actually help couples to conceive?

That was before I have my first child...(uhuh...you know where I'm getting at?)

The thing is, I want another 4 before I'm 40

I don't know if I can handle obgyn now. Not just the workload, (you guys know how it is in residency), but also my mental capacity (my CGPA is average). Doing masters in medical science (like patho/immuno/microbiology) has crossed my mind (no calls, only teaching and research), but I just can't seem letting go of that past experience. In fact, I remember doing Ob calls is worst (more work) than doing gynae calls, but I would readily switch with my partner who is doing Ob calls no matter how busy it is. Seeing a newborn baby is so lively.

I'm now doing Cardiology - I'm from Malaysia, so the system is a bit different. I'm under my government's contract since I took scholarship/loan with them, therefore serving the people where the service is needed at the moment, no matter what department - so imagine how many death I have to deal with in Cardio! I was a bit depressed everytime there's death initially, but my consultant told me not to worry too much because it's just AMI)

I've also thought of doing Family medicine, and only handle woman's cases, but that means opening up my own practice. Handling a business is not what I had in mind. And most importantly, I'm not a generalist type of person. So Internal med, peds is out of the question (my brain will be short circuit. There seems to be too much of everything). I heard there's a family medicine with connection to laboring, but that program has not arrive here yet (I'm in Malaysia) unless I have enough money to study oversea.

I did the pathway questionaires to match my personality and the specialization available. Over and over again it fell on Obgyn and ophthal. I don't want to make a mistake in choosing a career pathway. I know I can't get the 'perfect' residency program until later in my career once I can actually choose what I want to do, but I do hope your advice can shed some light in choosing the best.

Need the input! Thanx a million!

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[BlondeDocteur]

This is such a personal question. You're basically soliciting strangers to reveal to you the deepest desire of your heart.

Only *you* can decide what you will prioritize in the family/career balance. You've identified a strong intellectual interest in taking care of pregnant women and delivering their babies. *Any* field that involves labor and delivery will have difficult hours and lots of call-- and subsequently, lots of time away from your family. That would include straight ob/gyn, MFM (which would be worse since you, as the high-risk specialist, would need to attend the deliveries of your patients and would have a tougher time passing them off on partners in your group), or FP with an OB fellowship.

In the other fields-- cardiology, or academic medical science-- you would be doing work for work's sake (meaning, for an income, etc), not because you feel particularly drawn to it. This is perfectly fine and it's what the vast majority of the 6 billion people on this planet do every day.

Like I said, though, no stranger can really have any input into this decision whatsoever.

 

[ici_cute]

Sigh...this is so difficult, but I am at a crossroad. But thanx BlondeDocteur. I'm asking generally because I may not know the true picture once I've become an obgyn/MFM/FP. I know time with family will be sacrificed in any given fields if I want to be on top.