Pregnant while studying for the MCAT

[MedSun]

Hello!
I’m finishing my first year of a formal postbacc this semester. 2 days ago I found out I was pregnant🙂 and even though I’m happy it does create certain conflicts with my school schedule.
In the summer I’ll be taking a year of ochem, however I would have to miss the Fall semester completely. My baby is due sometime in mid November. My question is, will I be able to study effectively (during the third trimester) on my own for the MCAT? I must take it in January in order to avoid gap year.

Thank you!

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[mk04447]

How should I know? What are you capable of?

 

[Kr#36]

Yikes. Not great timing.

But, as the other poster said, we have no idea what your capabilities are. There isn’t exactly a long list of people who decided to try out a pregnancy/mcat combo.

 

[Campana]

First kid? In my experience (with pregnancy and babies, not pregnancy and MCAT prep), you'll have more time before the baby.

After the baby - well, that will depend on the baby and you and your family.

I had people tell me "Babies sleep all the time! You can get so much work done!" but my baby didn't get that memo. Plus, there's the breastfeeding / formula question - are you going to be the baby's sole provider of food? Will you have help taking care of the baby? How much help?

My MCAT experience (recent - January) required me to be studying all the way up to the exam (but I work full time and have 3 kids so you can do the math on how many hours were available).

I can't imagine doing that with my first kid mostly due to the lack of sleep: 6 months later and I was still wondering when in the world would I ever get to sleep for more than 2-3 hours at a time - there was no 24 hours of not being on call, there was no 6 hours of not being on call. But there are medical students/interns/residents who are able to make it work with a new baby and crazy studying/tests/work schedules. Maybe I did it wrong - but that's the hard part - you don't know yet if you'll "do it right" 🙂

Maybe you'll have the perfect balance of easy baby, easy pregnancy, easy recovery, good preparation, smooth everything - all the way to a a great MCAT.

 

[Fidelio17]

I can't speak to studying for the mcat while pregnant, but I can tell you that taking ochem labs while pregnant could be a problem.
My ochem professor was pretty blunt about it, "If you're pregnant, come see me later because you shouldn't be here."

 

[Blanky]

As long as you are determined you will do fine. Finish the ochem and sign up for Biochem in the fall. You can handle the one class. I also don't know if its a good idea to take a January MCAT after a fall biochem. Change the date to April/May MCAT and you can still apply June1.
My wife is 25 weeks with our first 🙂

Also I would say that you could start flash cards or Khan videos for Psych/Soc in your spare time will taking biochem/having baby in the fall.