Planning pregancy around application timeline??

[ds3489]

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Hi!

I'm planning to apply in June 2009 (for c/a 2014) and my husband and I have been talking about the timing of starting a family!

I'm thinking that we should make sure the interview season is over before the baby is born but would love the time to transition into parent life before school starts. If I do get my application in right in June, would interviews likely be in Sept/Oct??

Also, has anyone had experience interviewing while being obviously pregnant? Is this an issue for the interviewers?

Thanks for all your help in advance!

best,
Dana

 

[anon y mous]

Hi!

I'm planning to apply in June 2009 (for c/a 2014) and my husband and I have been talking about the timing of starting a family!

I'm thinking that we should make sure the interview season is over before the baby is born but would love the time to transition into parent life before school starts. If I do get my application in right in June, would interviews likely be in Sept/Oct??

Also, has anyone had experience interviewing while being obviously pregnant? Is this an issue for the interviewers?

Thanks for all your help in advance!

best,
Dana

I just want to comment that you can't always plan pregnancies; it doesn't always work that way. And I would not think starting school as a new mother is the best timing. And depending on your application and where you apply, it's hard to say when your interviews will be. Did you take the MCAT yet? What was your score? What's your gpa? I really do not know but depending on your interviewer nad your interview, they could hold some prejudice of how capable of a student you will be with a newborn.

 

[DrMidlife]

Come over to the nontrad forum where the moms are - premeds, med students, residents, attendings. You'll get better advice from other moms.

There are a number of web resources such as www.mommd.com.

 

[Kateb4]

Agree with Dr. Midlife. You won't get the best response from the traditional pre-meds. Check your mail, I'm sending you a PM.

 

[DrMidlife]

I just want to comment that you can't always plan pregnancies; it doesn't always work that way. And I would not think starting school as a new mother is the best timing. And depending on your application and where you apply, it's hard to say when your interviews will be. Did you take the MCAT yet? What was your score? What's your gpa? I really do not know but depending on your interviewer nad your interview, they could hold some prejudice of how capable of a student you will be with a newborn.

I realize you're probably not trying to be unsupportive of the OP, but holy ****, how about at least mentioning how incredibly common it is for med students have young children. Adcoms are absolutely prejudiced, but it is illegal to discriminate in this fashion, and for a qualified candidate a rejection would be just itching for a lawsuit. You're making it sound like the OP is trying to do something radically weird.

I won't try to argue in favor of how fun it is to have a newborn during med school, or how convenient it is for med school administrators to support leaves and such, but let's look at some numbers: >50% of med students are female and in their 20's. Thus in their prime child-bearing years. Thus having babies. When you get to med school you're going to see swarms of pregnant women. Because they're in their 20's. Having babies. It's stunningly commonplace.

 

[ds3489]

I just want to comment that you can't always plan pregnancies; it doesn't always work that way. And I would not think starting school as a new mother is the best timing. And depending on your application and where you apply, it's hard to say when your interviews will be. Did you take the MCAT yet? What was your score? What's your gpa? I really do not know but depending on your interviewer nad your interview, they could hold some prejudice of how capable of a student you will be with a newborn.

Thanks for replying...I do realize that you can't plan as specifically as we're hoping to; however, we can certainly choose to start trying later should it affect timing for interviews, etc. As for starting school as a new mother, I do have the support of a husband who will act as a full-time father...as his job situation allows for that. The timing of having my first child before school seems ideal for multiple reasons...(and we're very excited about starting a family). By the time I finish medical school, I will be on the high end of my biological clock - (34-35)...so no time is going to be considered the "best timing" from this point on. In truth, we will probably try to have another child during the education portion as well. It won't be easy but both a medical education and family-life are dreams for me.

As for stats, I'm a non-trad with my undergrad, master's in music and have just finished the pre-reqs at Harvard Extension. I'm still taking classes to bring up GPA (anatomy, epidemiology, etc.) but it's around a 3.3 science right now and a 3.5 overall. My grad gpa was a 3.86 but I know that doesn't count. I have worked as a clinical research assistant for crohns and colitis at Childrens Hospital Boston for 2 years (I grew up with colitis) and have 100+ additional volunteer hours (besides full-time work) and now work part-time at an eating disorder center and teaching voice lessons.

I took an MCAT about 1.5 years ago before I started orgo, which was a big mistake and embarassing but I plan to retake it in March/April. All of my letters of rec are in and ready to go, etc.

That's the situation.

Do you think that interviewers would ask about your plan or just ignore it? Has anybody on here interviewed while pregnant?

Thanks again...

 

[ds3489]

Thanks for all of your support, everyone--I'll certainly go to the other thread! I was just looking in DO b/c I'm most interested in DO schools--

sorry!

 

[Kateb4]

Do you think that interviewers would ask about your plan or just ignore it? Has anybody on here interviewed while pregnant?

Thanks again...

From what I understood, they are not legally allowed to ask you about your family plans, as that may indicate a prejudice. However, if they know that you have kids they will ask anyways. I was asked at a few of my interviews, and I honestly wanted to talk about it because we had a good plan in place and I wanted to make sure that the adcom's knew that finding childcare or whatever would not be a distraction. I didn't interview when I was pregnant, my baby was 5 months old when I had my first interview, so I had time to recover and start sleeping a little. Remember that you will not be at your peak mental capacity in the last few weeks of pregnancy or in the first couple of months post-natal, but it can be done!

 

[Kateb4]

Thanks for all of your support, everyone--I'll certainly go to the other thread! I was just looking in DO b/c I'm most interested in DO schools--

sorry!

By the way, I think that your stats are good, just work on that MCAT and you should have no problem.

 

[aliDO]

I've thought about having a second baby before school started and once wondered the same thing. I'm interviewing now, and not pregnant, so it's not an issue I have dealt first hand with. I have openly spoken about my young daughter in interviews and honestly think the interviewers thought positively of me being a mother. As far as being obviously pregnant, I imagine there would be somebody along the road that didn't like it deep down. But if it is what you want to do, then I'd say do it. I thought I was the only one that actually thought it would be better to be a mom before med school!

 

[anon y mous]

Thanks for replying...I do realize that you can't plan as specifically as we're hoping to; however, we can certainly choose to start trying later should it affect timing for interviews, etc. As for starting school as a new mother, I do have the support of a husband who will act as a full-time father...as his job situation allows for that. The timing of having my first child before school seems ideal for multiple reasons...(and we're very excited about starting a family). By the time I finish medical school, I will be on the high end of my biological clock - (34-35)...so no time is going to be considered the "best timing" from this point on. In truth, we will probably try to have another child during the education portion as well. It won't be easy but both a medical education and family-life are dreams for me.

As for stats, I'm a non-trad with my undergrad, master's in music and have just finished the pre-reqs at Harvard Extension. I'm still taking classes to bring up GPA (anatomy, epidemiology, etc.) but it's around a 3.3 science right now and a 3.5 overall. My grad gpa was a 3.86 but I know that doesn't count. I have worked as a clinical research assistant for crohns and colitis at Childrens Hospital Boston for 2 years (I grew up with colitis) and have 100+ additional volunteer hours (besides full-time work) and now work part-time at an eating disorder center and teaching voice lessons.

I took an MCAT about 1.5 years ago before I started orgo, which was a big mistake and embarassing but I plan to retake it in March/April. All of my letters of rec are in and ready to go, etc.

That's the situation.

Do you think that interviewers would ask about your plan or just ignore it? Has anybody on here interviewed while pregnant?

Thanks again...

Well that's terrific if your husband will be the fulltime caregiver; that certainly makes things easier for you and yet keeps the family together. And of course if any adcom wants to give you a hard time (of course I know it's discrimatory but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen), you can give them an honest and appropriate response. It sounds like you have a great plan and that you are a good applicant. Go for it and I wish you all the love, luck and happiness in the world!

 

[umean2tellme]

Just don't go into labor during the interview and I think you will be fine.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Just don't go into labor during the interview and I think you will be fine.

I disagree. Sounds like the perfect time to show off your stress management skills.

 

[umean2tellme]

I disagree. Sounds like the perfect time to show off your stress management skills.

Well if you're planning on going into Family Medicine it would be a plus if you show your ability to generate members of your family spontaneously, so thumbs up to labor during interview.

 

[Chocolate Bear]

Well if you're planning on going into Family Medicine it would be a plus if you show your ability to generate members of your family spontaneously, so thumbs up to labor during interview.

I think we can properly advise the OP to proactively plan the delivery during the interview of her top choice school. Glad we got that all settled.

 

[Francon]

ds3489, I wanted to respond to your post, but I also wanted to wait until I was accepted. And since that happened yesterday, here goes . . . I interviewed at my one school of choice being 23 1/2 weeks pregnant. Thanks to my suit, I really don't think my condition was very obvious. So if you want to keep it on the DL, I would shoot for getting pregnant mid-May (because these things are soooo easy to control - speaking from experience of course 😉). Then apply EARLY so you can get your interviews done before the bump has you knocking over fellow interviewees. And since I'm due early Feb, I'll have a good six months with my daughter before school starts! I'm glad to be doing this before I start school - one of the D.O.s I shadowed had a classmate that had multiple children during med school and residency. I know lots of people do it, but I can't imagine being pregnant during med school - what with the fatigue, nausea, moodiness, and brain drain.
Also, I'm really lucky with my situation, because I get to stay put and go to med school. Everything is here - my man, both our families, and a great support system, which I know is going to be incredibly important in the coming years.
I wish you lots of luck with your future family and with applying next year.

 

[PunkmedGirl]

ds3489, I wanted to respond to your post, but I also wanted to wait until I was accepted. And since that happened yesterday, here goes . . . I interviewed at my one school of choice being 23 1/2 weeks pregnant. Thanks to my suit, I really don't think my condition was very obvious. So if you want to keep it on the DL, I would shoot for getting pregnant mid-May (because these things are soooo easy to control - speaking from experience of course 😉). Then apply EARLY so you can get your interviews done before the bump has you knocking over fellow interviewees. And since I'm due early Feb, I'll have a good six months with my daughter before school starts! I'm glad to be doing this before I start school - one of the D.O.s I shadowed had a classmate that had multiple children during med school and residency. I know lots of people do it, but I can't imagine being pregnant during med school - what with the fatigue, nausea, moodiness, and brain drain.
Also, I'm really lucky with my situation, because I get to stay put and go to med school. Everything is here - my man, both our families, and a great support system, which I know is going to be incredibly important in the coming years.
I wish you lots of luck with your future family and with applying next year.

👍 AWWWWWWWWWWWWW whatcha having??😀

 

[Francon]

👍 AWWWWWWWWWWWWW whatcha having??😀

a girl, and I can't wait!!!

 

[PunkmedGirl]

a girl, and I can't wait!!!

Good luck🙂...I have a daughter she's 8 now. Man I miss those NON-talking moments LOL😎

 

[GreenShirt]

Interviews run anywhere from September through April of the year. You want to avoid being in your third trimester during this time because you will not be able to fly to your interviews. You may be able to reschedule some but you never know. If you turn in your apps early, you may get the Fall interviews but you could end up on hold until the Spring too. Good luck.

 

[catchburns]

Thanks for replying...I do realize that you can't plan as specifically as we're hoping to; however, we can certainly choose to start trying later should it affect timing for interviews, etc. As for starting school as a new mother, I do have the support of a husband who will act as a full-time father...as his job situation allows for that. The timing of having my first child before school seems ideal for multiple reasons...(and we're very excited about starting a family). By the time I finish medical school, I will be on the high end of my biological clock - (34-35)...so no time is going to be considered the "best timing" from this point on. In truth, we will probably try to have another child during the education portion as well. It won't be easy but both a medical education and family-life are dreams for me.

As for stats, I'm a non-trad with my undergrad, master's in music and have just finished the pre-reqs at Harvard Extension. I'm still taking classes to bring up GPA (anatomy, epidemiology, etc.) but it's around a 3.3 science right now and a 3.5 overall. My grad gpa was a 3.86 but I know that doesn't count. I have worked as a clinical research assistant for crohns and colitis at Childrens Hospital Boston for 2 years (I grew up with colitis) and have 100+ additional volunteer hours (besides full-time work) and now work part-time at an eating disorder center and teaching voice lessons.

I took an MCAT about 1.5 years ago before I started orgo, which was a big mistake and embarassing but I plan to retake it in March/April. All of my letters of rec are in and ready to go, etc.

That's the situation.

Do you think that interviewers would ask about your plan or just ignore it? Has anybody on here interviewed while pregnant?

Thanks again...

I interviewed recently and the interviewers knew that I have a young child and that we're expecting another one right before school next year. I personally don't think it was viewed negatively in the interview. In fact, one of my interviewers was a mother herself and I think it helped a bit for her to know. I ended up getting accepted so I'd say that as long as you can show that you'll be successful at balancing the load that a baby will add, it should make no difference either way.

BTW - Despite what some other may say, it is possible to plan pregnancies very accurately sometimes. Both of my children were planned and the second will come exactly when we wanted. Also, don't believe anyone when they say that they add unnecessary burden while your in school. Its all about priorities. I work full-time and attended full-time school as well as do a bunch of EC stuff and I still am able to enjoy my family. I'm in the top of my class so it hasn't made my studies suffer more than I can handle. Its all about how you schedule your life. Also, kids aren't as expensive as people would lead you to believe so don't make that a reason if you really would like to start a family.

Good luck. Hope it works out for you!😀

 

[1troy]

i agree with catchums,

I'm 37 weeks pregnant and I'm interviewing next week. I had fear of possibly laboring next week, but chances are low since my two other sons were born after their due date. I'll be a mother of 3 and hoping to attend medical school by next fall. Anything is possible. I am a lil' nervous what adcoms will think of me being pregnant, but I have already experienced a long journey having children through my undergrad with no problems. I can't imagine a career without having a family. Break 2 stones with one brick!