I am very early in my first pregnancy and I'm 35. I am literally miserable being a doctor right now and I'm wondering if anyone else felt this way while working during pregnancy. I wonder if this will pass as the pregnancy progresses? I'm feeling all of the usual first trimester symptoms. I have to be on my feet all day doing procedures that make me feel dizzy and nauseated. I'm using up all of what little energy I have to help my patients with their problems, and taking all the strain on my body to make sure they are comfortable. If I miscarry, there are lots of noxious things in my work environment that I will be tempted to blame. Of course I also want to keep quiet about my pregnancy until I'm further along, especially at work, but my clinical and office assistants are mostly female - they see me struggling every day and I'm sure they can guess what's going on. At this point I am thinking I will have to at least cut back on my hours if I don't leave my job altogether. Or should I try harder to stick it out? I feel like I will be giving up my career that I barely just started after so many years of sacrifice to get through school and residency, and maybe I will regret that later. Though I do personally feel that starting a family is most important to me right now. I know many other women have been through this and worked around it in their own way. What are your thoughts?
Pregnancy
- Thread starter xnpth
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deleted497653
You will need to cut down on the hours especially if you are in a position to do so for pregnancy (this is for attending level.. If you are a resident, that's a different situation altogether but even then things can be done---i.e delay finishing residency). Working a lot during early pregnancy is sure to leave you worn out and unhappy. You have the rest of your life to make money. Right now, work enough to stay employed and keep your license till the baby arrives. Hopefully, your coworkers understand; which leads to the next point...
If you feel that you do not want to share you are pregnant, you could say, that you need to cut back hours "for medical reasons" and leave it at that.
If you feel that you do not want to share you are pregnant, you could say, that you need to cut back hours "for medical reasons" and leave it at that.
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deleted480308
Cut back if you need to, the reasons are not your coworkers business
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Go public and tell them -- Knowing, they'll give you slack when you reduce your hours, which it sounds like you should. As you note, they might already have guessed anyway. Telling them early says that you trust them; not telling them says you don't. Even if you don't trust them, since they've guessed anyway, where's the loss?
Don't give up on medicine or make any other major life decisions now since your hormones are all in flux, but just play it by ear with the aim of keeping your options open until after you've recovered from childbirth and the first few months of sleepless nights -- so 12-18 more months.
Don't give up on medicine or make any other major life decisions now since your hormones are all in flux, but just play it by ear with the aim of keeping your options open until after you've recovered from childbirth and the first few months of sleepless nights -- so 12-18 more months.
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Just cut back to part time, take the pay cut and come back 3 months after having the kid to work full time.
Don't see why that's a problem? Are you worried about finances?
The only problem I see here is if you want to quit completely after having the child.
Do you have student loans? Who is going to pay for that if you quit? Who is going to pay for the expensive childcare expenses, home, etc?
