Pregnancy/away rotations/residency interviews

[ctc]

I started med school older than most of my classmates. I am a 3rd yr med student entering match next year and have completed my heavier core rotations. As someone turning 32, I really want a kid. My thought is that if I have a kid before residency starts, it would be easier as I won't have to take a maternity leave during PGY-1.
Does anyone have experience with how pregnancy affect the residency interview process (at less competitive specialties)? How rough are traveling/interviews on your pregnancy? I am planning a couple away electives this summer, will pregnancy negatively affect your away rotation performance?
I understand the best time to have kids is during 3-4yr residency, but I don't want to wait until I am 36!

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[yadayadadude]

You'll get better answers and more help at mommd.com.

Having said that, I had a fourth year baby. Feel free to PM me with specific questions.

 

[kelaskov]

I started med school older than most of my classmates. I am a 3rd yr med student entering match next year and have completed my heavier core rotations. As someone turning 32, I really want a kid. My thought is that if I have a kid before residency starts, it would be easier as I won't have to take a maternity leave during PGY-1.
Does anyone have experience with how pregnancy affect the residency interview process (at less competitive specialties)? How rough are traveling/interviews on your pregnancy? I am planning a couple away electives this summer, will pregnancy negatively affect your away rotation performance?
I understand the best time to have kids is during 3-4yr residency, but I don't want to wait until I am 36!

I'm a 4th year student currently pregnant (25wks) graduating this year. I didn’t enter the match this year and will be matching next year (my husband is matching this year and it just worked out better for me to take next year off). First, let me say I am overjoyed to be pregnant and am currently feeling excellent. It’s a cliché but true- the experience has really helped me put my life and long-term goals into perspective. Like you, I didn’t want to wait until I was in my mid-late 30’s to have my first child. A little background, I honored all but one of my third year clerkships and only 1 of 3 sub-internships, which I completed during my 1st trimester. As I’ve always been super healthy (never get ill, no meds, no headaches, have never taken off any days for health-related reason, exercise reg, etc.) I figured the first trimester would be a breeze. Not so. I underestimated how exhausted I would be, especially during night float. Furthermore, I had terrible nausea, which had me feeling continuously ill from weeks 7-14. The symptoms may have been more manageable if I had not been doing surgical rotations where I was often in the OR for 3 hrs at a time without access to small meals (helpful for nausea). Basically, I wasn’t myself, felt terrible, and believe my performance suffered. At the time, I also felt some guilt regarding the effect of my stress on my pregnancy. If I could do it again, I would have scheduled my sub-Is before getting pregnancy or after week 14 or so. Pregnancy affects people differently and this was just my unfortunate experience.

I will be the 3rd woman in my class to deliver this year and the only one who’s taking time off. A classmate who just delivered prematched into IM and the other matched into ER through the DO match. I believe both did rotations and interviews while visibly pregnant and I know my friend who matched to ER got her first choice. Another, due in July, who was newly pregnant during her interviews told me she had to excuse herself to vomit during one of them. Despite the challenges, I believe 4th year is an excellent time to have a baby. If you plan carefully, most of 4th year is a breeze- especially if you are doing relatively cush sub-Is like radiology (I can say that my husbands sub-I’s in rads weren’t nearly as demanding as my surgical ones). Things seemed to have worked well for my classmates who will be able to spend time with their babies before starting residency. I’m happy with my decision to have a baby now..not to say I might not have another during residency but after my experience, I would definitely not conceive during internship. Good luck with your decision!

 

[dragonfly99]

I think you should do it (have the baby during 4th year).
I don't have kids, but from what I've seen, 4th year is probably the best time during med school to have a baby.
Doing a subI while pregnant might be tough, though, depending on what subI it is and whether you feel well vs. not.
I don't think interviewing while pregnant would be a huge deal, unless it's for surgery...surgeons really don't like women who have kids because they assume the person won't work as hard during residency and/or will have more kids.

 

[rka]

I had a baby during 4th year- could not have worked out better. Now the hard part is having an infant during intern year- not so easy. Please feel free to PM me!

 

[orientedtoself]

I started med school older than most of my classmates. I am a 3rd yr med student entering match next year and have completed my heavier core rotations. As someone turning 32, I really want a kid. My thought is that if I have a kid before residency starts, it would be easier as I won't have to take a maternity leave during PGY-1.
Does anyone have experience with how pregnancy affect the residency interview process (at less competitive specialties)? How rough are traveling/interviews on your pregnancy? I am planning a couple away electives this summer, will pregnancy negatively affect your away rotation performance?
I understand the best time to have kids is during 3-4yr residency, but I don't want to wait until I am 36!

there is no good time to have a baby. there are only bad times- specifically, intern year. i am a 3rd year resident, currently pregnant (21 weeks). like the previous poster said, first trimester can be hard. for some reason i didn't think i would be affected by morning sickness. well, i was. i had to snack every 15 minutes to feel ok. would not have been possible if i were a surgeon (i'm not). one day i vomited in the trash can at work. i'm feeling much better second trimester. i'm currently interviewing for fellowships, feeling good for traveling.

 

[Eyefixer]

I am a male, but my wife is a 4th year medical student currently 3 months pregnant with our first child. Before we decided to have a baby during 4th year/internship period we did extensive research on the subject of matching/interviewing while visibly pregnant (as much as one can do this). I do agree that in select cases being visibly pregnant during residency interviews won't hurt you chances at a specific program. For the vast majority of them, especially if you are going into a competitive specialty or even into a non-competitive specialty in a desirable location, it would certainly be taken into consideration when you are ranked. Especially if you applying for a preliminary or transitional year, you may significantly decrease your chances if PD and others know you will deliver during your PGY-1. I know it is unfair, but this is reality. Desirable programs get way more applications than they have spots and they can rank whomever they choose. One of the goals of a PD is for residency program to run smoothly, which is not so easy if one of your 5 interns takes 2 months of maternity leave in August. In any case, please think very carefully before making any decisions in regards to this issue. Remember, you can be pregnant during interviews, you just can't show 🙂

Hope this helps.

 

[Doowai]

I have seen FP programs that had a large number of pregnant female residents.

Having a baby and being in residency is way tough in my opinion.

 

[Samoa]

I knew someone who was 8 or 9 months pregnant on an away rotation in a competitive specialty, still taking q2 call like a champ. If anything, people respected her more for being able to do it.

 

[tr]

I vote you should just have the kid and deal with everything else as it comes, because in the long run you'll probably regret it more if you have trouble conceiving or don't get to have as many kids as you wanted, vs (e.g.) if you get your 2nd-choice rather than your 1st-choice residency or whatever. It may well affect your match depending on specialty, but I'd say that's something to just roll with (and you'll never really know anyway).

That said, I echo the above posters: don't schedule anything important during your (proposed) first trimester. Mine sucked - I vomited multiple times per day and frequently had to excuse myself from rounds or patient interviews to go puke, and I was tired ALL the time despite getting tons of sleep. (I don't know why they call it 'morning sickness' since it's apparently common for it to be there all day long, as it was for me.)

Plus you don't get cut any slack in the first trimester because nobody can tell you're pregnant. After you start showing everyone starts getting you chairs and asking how you feel all the time, which is ironic because that's the point at which things are starting to get better (or at least less awful).

Of course, it's impossible to plan pregnancy so accurately (you could get pregnant on the first try or not for six months) but if you can switch things around appropriately once the pee stick turns, then do.

If you're going for a competitive specialty, why not take a year off after 4th year? That way you can be pregnant during the relatively chill 4th year and get a year with your baby while you do interviews and stuff. You won't have to interview pregnant, you won't be dealing with an infant during intern year, and you won't have to dump your kid in daycare at 8 weeks old.

 

[fleurMD]

I had a baby during 4th year- could not have worked out better. Now the hard part is having an infant during intern year- not so easy. Please feel free to PM me!

Hi rka!

I was thrilled to find your posting: not only was it posted within the past year, it is precisely the information I was hoping to find!

I am 30 yo, half-way through my 3rd year of medical school and would like to get pregnant within the next 5 months. I'll be applying for IM residencies this fall. Do you have any advice regarding being 7-8 months pregnant during residency interviews? I'd like to start trying very soon, but if I do conceive early on, there is a chance that my due date would be late November, early December - right in the middle of interviewing season. On the flip side, the longer I wait, the closer my delivery date will be to graduation and starting intern year. 😕

Many thanks for any insight you might have. I feel very supported in my decision knowing there are so many MD moms who have wrestled with these logistics.
🙂

 

[Substance]

Have the kid if you want, but don't go looking for free passes during residency because you're a new mother. That's a cheap way of getting out of doing work.

 

[tootsweet]

Hi rka!

I was thrilled to find your posting: not only was it posted within the past year, it is precisely the information I was hoping to find!

I am 30 yo, half-way through my 3rd year of medical school and would like to get pregnant within the next 5 months. I'll be applying for IM residencies this fall. Do you have any advice regarding being 7-8 months pregnant during residency interviews? I'd like to start trying very soon, but if I do conceive early on, there is a chance that my due date would be late November, early December - right in the middle of interviewing season. On the flip side, the longer I wait, the closer my delivery date will be to graduation and starting intern year. 😕

Many thanks for any insight you might have. I feel very supported in my decision knowing there are so many MD moms who have wrestled with these logistics.
🙂

IMHO, a better plan would be to deliver past Jan. when most interviews will be done. Delivering in Nov. may really screw up interviews as most of them tend to occur in Nov.-Jan. Unless you have someone who's 100% able to take care of babes, even then, interviewing 2-3 weeks PP would be extremely difficult/insane. esp if it's your first. And that's assuming everything goes well and you don't have a c/s and baby is healthy. Delivering in Feb/Mar. would still give you ample time to spend with babes before starting residency. Good luck!

 

[McMD]

IMHO, a better plan would be to deliver past Jan. when most interviews will be done. Delivering in Nov. may really screw up interviews as most of them tend to occur in Nov.-Jan. Unless you have someone who's 100% able to take care of babes, even then, interviewing 2-3 weeks PP would be extremely difficult/insane. esp if it's your first. And that's assuming everything goes well and you don't have a c/s and baby is healthy. Delivering in Feb/Mar. would still give you ample time to spend with babes before starting residency. Good luck!

I lucked out and my husband and I accidentally got pregnant at the perfect time and delivered in July of 4th year. I didn't do externships and obviously didn't have a belly for interviews, so it worked out perfectly. BUT....what I didn't expect when doing all my planning, was babies are ALOT of work!! Everyone tells you, but you just don't comprehend the amount of work until you have them. The first month is probably the most difficult, esp if you're breastfeeding. I couldn't IMAGINE trying to go through this newborn time AND traveling for interviews!!! It was an emotional pull trying to leave my 4 month old for interviews, let alone a few-week old! Plus, if you have a c/s, you could still be in a lot of pain while trying to travel to interviews or just sitting through the long interview days.

Have you thought about taking a year off? I know, I know...that's probably the LAST thing you want to hear (and it was for me as well), but you could really have a great year with your baby and then hit 4th year/interviews afterwards. If I were financially able to do that, I absolutely would have!!!

Good luck! In the end, whenever you get pregnant...it works out...whether it's exactly as you planned or taking alternate routes to get to the same goal.

 

[StanleyCup7]

My wife (who is currently an MS-3, while I am an MS-4) and I are trying to figure out if it would be better to have a baby in the spring of her 4th year or during her PGY-2 year. My wife is 28 and so the thought of not having a baby until she is 30 is not sitting too well with her. The problem with having a child in the spring of 4th year is that I think it would be incredibly difficult to have an infant/toddler as an intern (and PGY-2 for me). Any thoughts/advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

 

[ReadyFreddy]

For StanleyCup:

30 is not old!!!

That's all I have to say on that issue. Otherwise, no experience to speak from and no opinion to offer. Good luck!

 

[Rocky Racoon]

I'm an M4 who is currently 6 months pregnant with my second child. My daughter was born at the very begining on my M3 year and my son will be born in Feb. I will be very noticibly pregnant during my interviews and have my last interview scheduled for 4 weeks before my due date. I can tell you that if you have a supportive partner and excellent/flexable child care then being a mom while working hard is not too bad. While I am extremely nervous about how my very obvious pregnancy will be received at the programs I am interviewing at, I also think that it provides me an excellent opportunity to talk about all the positive things in my life that make me unique.
My advice is to go for it. My husband and I spent 6 years waiting for 'the right time' before we realized there was no such thing as the perfect time. Life is short and uncertain; prioritize your happiness and your family. You can still be an excellent student and an excellent mother! I honored many of my 3rd and 4th year rotations, scored >250 on both steps, did research and made AOA, all after the birth of my daughter. And thanks to a faculty that is super supportive, I will still finish my last rotaiton a week before graduation despite taking 2 maternity leaves (I worked through every vacation and holiday to make up for missed time).
Its very workable, and totally worth it!

 

[katiecornflakes]

Another pregnant MS4 here, due in April with #2. Would've preferred a bit sooner, but I agree with posters above about not delivering during interviews. Either deliver before, or after Jan (and plan to do all your interviews early). And before leaves you with a newborn, which basically means either getting up the strength to leave him/her at home, or paying to have someone come along to take care of babe. Either is tough.

I'm sure it depends on the specialty, but I think the reality is that there are likely programs that will move you on the rank list if they can see you're pregnant. It's not legal, and it's not right, but it happens. That said, I decided that I don't want to be a program that would do that. In the end, it's a screening tool for me, so I'm ok with it.