PhD Program schedule-mom to be

[psychchic]

I will be going to a Clinical Phd program and am an older female student (30).
I want to have children at some point and dont want to wait till after i finish school. Is there a better time during the program to plan on being pregnant/having a child? Does anyone have any experience with this? How do programs respond when a student approaches them? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.

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[SaraL124]

There are a LOT of pregnant women in my program. Generally, I think it is acceptable (at least at my school) to take a semester off for "maternity leave" but you'll have to be careful about the timing of practica because at some schools they are a full year, not just one semester. The more time you take off, the more time you'll set yourself back for graduating the program, but writing your masters thesis and dissertation both can be done at home.

 

[Mell-Dogg]

The 2 girls I know who've done this have had their children after they completed their coursework, but prior to internship (the year before internship when they were primarily working on their dissertation.) Good luck!!

 

[PsychStudent]

Honestly, this is so program-specific! Having children in my program is very, very looked down upon (even when you're done with classes), and the two women I knew who did this were basically shunned by their advisors after that and not taken seriously. However, neither of the female faculty in my department are married or have children, so that is what may have created that malignant attitude.

I'm sure that at 95% of programs having kids is totally acceptable. I would talk to people who have done it before though, and ask them the general sentiment of the department.

 

[Mell-Dogg]

I'm sure that at 95% of programs having kids is totally acceptable. I would talk to people who have done it before though, and ask them the general sentiment of the department.

Yeah, the 2 women I talked to ran into NO problems with their program faculty. I'm not suprised that this happens, but don't think it's the norm. It's not really reasonable to expect that pregnancy would never come up in a female majority (at most places) student body in their 20's and 30's.

 

[lazure]

THere's still a lot of animosity and discrimination against women and their life priorities in grad school. When I got engaged, one female faculty member congratulated me and said "remember no babies before dissertation".
To the OP - do what's right for you. I suspect that being pregnant might be easier during class-based work semesters rather than practica which take up a lot of time. I work primarily with children and the first questions parents ask me is "do you have kids?"...having children would allow your adult clients to relate to you better.