Pregnancy in Medical School

[eanisis78]

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Hello,

I am currently pregnant in my first year of DO school. Unfortunately my program is completely unfriendly to pregnant women. For example they will not let you miss labs if you are on bedrest and if you happen to give birth around finals time, they do not allow changes in their scheduling of exams. You miss you repeat it over the summer. To make matters worse, if you have to for some reason take a leave of absence during your first and second year, you have to come back and repeat the ENTIRE first year because their "curriculum is still in flux"
So i was hoping you guys could give me some feedback about other schools policies and procedures so if I need to fight the rules I have a leg to stand on!
Thanks so much

 

[It'sElectric]

Hello,

I am currently pregnant in my first year of DO school. Unfortunately my program is completely unfriendly to pregnant women. For example they will not let you miss labs if you are on bedrest and if you happen to give birth around finals time, they do not allow changes in their scheduling of exams. You miss you repeat it over the summer. To make matters worse, if you have to for some reason take a leave of absence during your first and second year, you have to come back and repeat the ENTIRE first year because their "curriculum is still in flux"
So i was hoping you guys could give me some feedback about other schools policies and procedures so if I need to fight the rules I have a leg to stand on!
Thanks so much

That is a pretty harsh school.

 

[Dr JPH]

Hello,

I am currently pregnant in my first year of DO school. Unfortunately my program is completely unfriendly to pregnant women. For example they will not let you miss labs if you are on bedrest and if you happen to give birth around finals time, they do not allow changes in their scheduling of exams. You miss you repeat it over the summer. To make matters worse, if you have to for some reason take a leave of absence during your first and second year, you have to come back and repeat the ENTIRE first year because their "curriculum is still in flux"
So i was hoping you guys could give me some feedback about other schools policies and procedures so if I need to fight the rules I have a leg to stand on!
Thanks so much

I cannot comment on your particular situation, but almost all of the women I know who got pregnant in medical school took a year off. The ones who didnt were pregnant during their clinical years and were able to move rotations around to accomodate.

 

[pjpajamas]

Hmm, your school does sound pretty harsh. But why are you on bedrest? The reason I ask is that if you are having a difficult pregnancy, you might have to take a year off.

I'm currently 7 months along going on 8 months and in my 2nd year at TUCOM-CA. My school has been extremely supportive. One professor even offered to let me use her office in the future for breastpumping. There are 2 other girls in my class that are also pregnant. The first thing I did was check the student handbook and meet with my Dean of Student Affairs, then Dean of Clinical Education (to see how this would affect 3rd year rotations).

So my school told me that by law I am entitled to 6 weeks maternity leave, if I request it. But since I hadn't planned to take anymore than 2 weeks off, my Dean ensured me that it wouldn't affect me completing my 2nd year. More than 2 weeks, I guess I would have to go and talk to my Dean again. Scheduling of exams is definitely flexible, my due date is actually in the middle of my 2nd blocks this semeser. There is a group of students taking their exams a week early for convocation and I'm toying with the idea of taking it with them. My plan was then to skip the first week of classes after blocks, then comes spring break, and then only attend labs after that.

So far last semester I attended all my classes - but that's because I've had no symptoms, no morning sickness. only fatigue - which I lay my head down in class when I have to. I've had to skip one lab because of a prenatal appt, but my path lab instructor was pretty supportive about that.

The preclinical years - 1st and 2nd year is actually a much better time to be pregnant than when on rotations. Because you're not on your feet as much so you aren't physically tired out. But that was also assuming your school would be more supportive. Check and see if there are any students from previous years that have been pregnant - see if you can get advice from them on how to deal with your school.

Despit what JPHazelton said, I'm not planning to take any time off (unless I have to of course). I still planning to take boards on time as well. On the other hand I might take a year off between my 3rd and 4th years if I want a 2nd child, because I wouldn't want to be physically stressing out my body and putting myself in danger of preterm labor. Plus it would be a good time to also get an MPH at my school.

I hope you make more progress at your school. Has this affected you taking anatomy? I think every school has a different policy on that because of the formaldehyde, some require full body protective suits, etc.

Good luck with everything! and congrats on the baby!

 

[eanisis78]

hello

sorry to confuse... but i am not on bed reset. my finals end May 31st and my due date is June 30th. I tried to plan it perfectly... I just did not plan on twins. So to cover myself I asked my dean my options and basically I did not have any. If i had best rest (even though all our lectures are streamed and I could keep up) i would have to take a leave. Unfortunately NYCOM has no offical leave of absence policy. In your first two years if you need ot leave, you must repeat the whole year. I just think it is a horrible policy which is why I was asking what other schools did for students needing to take a leave of absence.
So any help... would be great!

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

hello

sorry to confuse... but i am not on bed reset. my finals end May 31st and my due date is June 30th. I tried to plan it perfectly... I just did not plan on twins. So to cover myself I asked my dean my options and basically I did not have any. If i had best rest (even though all our lectures are streamed and I could keep up) i would have to take a leave. Unfortunately NYCOM has no offical leave of absence policy. In your first two years if you need ot leave, you must repeat the whole year. I just think it is a horrible policy which is why I was asking what other schools did for students needing to take a leave of absence.
So any help... would be great!

i'm no help but I wanted to say Congratulations! Wow, twins. Your kids are breaking you in early . They never make life easy! I hope you're getting to enjoy your pregnancy despite your school's terrible response 👎 . I used to roll my eyes at little old ladies who came up to me while I was pregnant and said "it's such a blessing", but it is 🙂 Good luck and enjoy 😍

 

[MiesVanDerMom]

Hmm, your school does sound pretty harsh. But why are you on bedrest? The reason I ask is that if you are having a difficult pregnancy, you might have to take a year off.

I'm currently 7 months along going on 8 months and in my 2nd year at TUCOM-CA. My school has been extremely supportive. One professor even offered to let me use her office in the future for breastpumping. There are 2 other girls in my class that are also pregnant. The first thing I did was check the student handbook and meet with my Dean of Student Affairs, then Dean of Clinical Education (to see how this would affect 3rd year rotations).

So my school told me that by law I am entitled to 6 weeks maternity leave, if I request it. But since I hadn't planned to take anymore than 2 weeks off, my Dean ensured me that it wouldn't affect me completing my 2nd year. More than 2 weeks, I guess I would have to go and talk to my Dean again. Scheduling of exams is definitely flexible, my due date is actually in the middle of my 2nd blocks this semeser. There is a group of students taking their exams a week early for convocation and I'm toying with the idea of taking it with them. My plan was then to skip the first week of classes after blocks, then comes spring break, and then only attend labs after that.

So far last semester I attended all my classes - but that's because I've had no symptoms, no morning sickness. only fatigue - which I lay my head down in class when I have to. I've had to skip one lab because of a prenatal appt, but my path lab instructor was pretty supportive about that.

The preclinical years - 1st and 2nd year is actually a much better time to be pregnant than when on rotations. Because you're not on your feet as much so you aren't physically tired out. But that was also assuming your school would be more supportive. Check and see if there are any students from previous years that have been pregnant - see if you can get advice from them on how to deal with your school.

Despit what JPHazelton said, I'm not planning to take any time off (unless I have to of course). I still planning to take boards on time as well. On the other hand I might take a year off between my 3rd and 4th years if I want a 2nd child, because I wouldn't want to be physically stressing out my body and putting myself in danger of preterm labor. Plus it would be a good time to also get an MPH at my school.

I hope you make more progress at your school. Has this affected you taking anatomy? I think every school has a different policy on that because of the formaldehyde, some require full body protective suits, etc.

Good luck with everything! and congrats on the baby!

holy crap, you're ambitious. hope you have a cooperative baby/babies. good luck

 

[beastmaster]

hello

sorry to confuse... but i am not on bed reset. my finals end May 31st and my due date is June 30th. I tried to plan it perfectly... I just did not plan on twins. So to cover myself I asked my dean my options and basically I did not have any. If i had best rest (even though all our lectures are streamed and I could keep up) i would have to take a leave. Unfortunately NYCOM has no offical leave of absence policy. In your first two years if you need ot leave, you must repeat the whole year. I just think it is a horrible policy which is why I was asking what other schools did for students needing to take a leave of absence.
So any help... would be great!

There is on average 1 required day of attendance per week, whether dpr, omm or anatomy. At most 2-3, but you're only in for a couple of hours and mostly sitting. Some of these can be rescheduled to another day, or to the summer. And as far as I know, you only have 1 exam at a time (ie, a final - not "finals") - with retakes, so thats 2 opportunities to take any single test. Bed rest this far out (if you're due in july) probably won't be a 24/7 thing, so you have quite a bit of wiggle room no pun intended.

 

[pjpajamas]

Congrats on the twins! That's awesome news. I went back and checked in my school's student guide handbook. All it says is to meet with the Dean of Student Affairs to discuss maternity leave and "how" it would affect academic performance.

I hope everything works out for you. You're right, your timing is great, except twins tend to come early. Maybe you can go to individual faculty and see if they would work with you in terms of scheduling exams.

All I can say is take it one day at a time and whatever comes, comes. I'm prepared to take time off if I have to. But so far so good!

Do you have classmates that are already parents? They've been a great source of baby stuff for me.

 

[Northerner]

hello

sorry to confuse... but i am not on bed reset. my finals end May 31st and my due date is June 30th. I tried to plan it perfectly... I just did not plan on twins. So to cover myself I asked my dean my options and basically I did not have any. If i had best rest (even though all our lectures are streamed and I could keep up) i would have to take a leave. Unfortunately NYCOM has no offical leave of absence policy. In your first two years if you need ot leave, you must repeat the whole year. I just think it is a horrible policy which is why I was asking what other schools did for students needing to take a leave of absence.
So any help... would be great!

What exactly would you consider fair/ideal for the school to offer you?

 

[DoctorMom78]

hello

sorry to confuse... but i am not on bed reset. my finals end May 31st and my due date is June 30th. I tried to plan it perfectly... I just did not plan on twins. So to cover myself I asked my dean my options and basically I did not have any. If i had best rest (even though all our lectures are streamed and I could keep up) i would have to take a leave. Unfortunately NYCOM has no offical leave of absence policy. In your first two years if you need ot leave, you must repeat the whole year. I just think it is a horrible policy which is why I was asking what other schools did for students needing to take a leave of absence.
So any help... would be great!

To the pregnant soon-to-be-docs, CONGRATS!!! I love babies and pregnant women! I really admire your strength and determination as well. 😍 I went through two pregnancies during my undergrad and it was tough. I thought I had planned my son perfectly too. He was due on 12/22 after classes and finals were done, but he came on 12/8 which was the last day of classes. He had to come back and take finals with me a week later. I can't imagine going through a pregnancy in med school.😱 It is really too bad that they are being so inflexible in your situation. My school was wonderful with my pregnancies. Since you are having twins, you are at a higher risk for delivering early. Your children's actual birthday may be closer to those finals than you think. Hopefully everything will work out for you though. I hope that luck is on your side since your school does not seem to be. I can't help you in terms of policies, but I just wanted to wish you all lots of love and luck. I am sure everything will work out somehow. 🙂

 

[JP2005]

i guess you could try wrapping it up next time.....just a thought..

J

 

[medmom]

i guess you could try wrapping it up next time.....just a thought..

J

Or, perhaps it was unwrapped on purpose Don't be an a-hole

 

[DoctorMom78]

Or, perhaps it was unwrapped on purpose Don't be an a-hole

LOL!👍