Hey girlfriend, I wonder how many of us are out there?
I too went to medical school, even graduated in the top of my class followed by internship at well respected university program. When "news" leaked of my unintentional pregnancy, I received lots of "advice" to "just take an afternoon off" and "take care of the problem". There were even lots of jokes that one indicator of the "best" surgical programs, were those with the highest miscarriage rates. I know we have all heard the stories of resident's rates of kidney stones secondary to dehydration; working non-deterred with raging pneumonia( and it being expected); helping with patient rounds after just receiving surgery ones self, etc.
In my case there was a pregnant woman presenting to the ER late one night with a perf'd bowel--they all thought it was me!! Ha! Ha!(knowing that I had become so dehydrated and constipated I was administering self-enemas). I was in an OB/G program, actually ranked as one of the best in the country, yet I didn't receive prenatal care. I was offered to take one hour per week though for "counseling", but no time for prenatal care. At 36 weeks I was "advised" to get an induction the following week. I was also told that although the law provided for a six week maternity leave, that in fact I would be "hated" if I took more than a two week leave.
I could keep writing for many pages more on this topic....
Call me naive, but I never expected the "Noble Profession" of medicine to have such callous attitudes and treatment of their very own. The attitudes and expectations regarding what is expected of residents goes beyond meeting the needs of patients, in fact I would argue that patients are placed in jeopardy as a result. These archaic attitudes probably served the profession well back when most of the residents were young men in their 20's with doting wives at home. It was a few years of grueling labor in exchange for a lifetime of career prosperity. It was and continues to be a "right of passage".
Problem is that now women constitute roughly 50% of medical school students. Like it or not, it is women who birth children ( and this actually should be a valued trait when you consider that one day we will all become old and will need young people to grow our food, run the country, etc.). Yet medicine has failed to evolve in its attitudes or practices to an appreciable enough extent that talented women like us aren't forced to make difficult decisions between our children and our chosen profession.
Moreover, if we chose to take a leave of absence from the profession, even with the most compelling of circumstances, there really are no career paths back.
I guess the joke is on us who worked hard and sacrificed our youths to get the grades to get into and through medical school; risked our financial futures with on average $200,000.00 in student loans only to find out that our "valuable" M.D. degree is in fact not that valuable if you do not stick to the straight and narrow, often inhumane, residency paths that worked for our physician forefathers. Further consider that U.S. medical school graduates face the very real threat that there is always another "warm body" ready and waiting from any one of thousands of medical schools worldwide to fill their U.S. residency spot, many of whom do not have student loan debt. Have you ever looked into training for U.S. graduates in another country? It is pretty difficult to even find information on the topic.
Please excuse my long and opinionated "rant". I guess you touched on a "sore" spot.
