Trying for a baby at the end of intern year?

[ohsnap123]

I'm a 4th year medical student applying into OBGYN getting married at the end of 4th year to a now-1st year law student. If I match in the city where he is, we'd like to have a baby at the end of my intern year (summer or start of his third year). His schedule as a third year law student will be more forgiving than his schedule the first couple years in his practice, and we have family in the area.

Has anyone who's done this able to comment on the feasibility of being pregnant as an intern in OBGYN? I'm going to stop my birth control post match to allow my cycles to regulate (I've been on hormonal birth control for 8 years), but we won't try for a baby until the wedding has passed. I'm expecting it to take us several months to get pregnant, but it's possible I'd get pregnant right away and be due in February of intern year.

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[darknecrosforte]

These LH piss test strips should make the planning easier. Used the Shettles method to try to skew the odds of having a girl first because of temperament preferences and it helped knowing exactly when ovulation occurred. You might want to buy specimen containers too. Having about 100 tests should let you accurately track your LH spike for ~6 months.

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[anonperson]

I'm a 4th year medical student applying into OBGYN getting married at the end of 4th year to a now-1st year law student. If I match in the city where he is, we'd like to have a baby at the end of my intern year (summer or start of his third year). His schedule as a third year law student will be more forgiving than his schedule the first couple years in his practice, and we have family in the area.

Has anyone who's done this able to comment on the feasibility of being pregnant as an intern in OBGYN? I'm going to stop my birth control post match to allow my cycles to regulate (I've been on hormonal birth control for 8 years), but we won't try for a baby until the wedding has passed. I'm expecting it to take us several months to get pregnant, but it's possible I'd get pregnant right away and be due in February of intern year.

It will be challenging being pregnant and having a baby during residency. Some years may be a bit easier than others but that is program dependent.

It would probably be wise to try to get through intern year entirely to at least get your bearings. There is a lot of information to absorb (Step 3, Creogs, etc).

But at the end of the day, these things can only be planned to an extent and if it happens at an inopportune time, then what can you do? Ensure you have good family support/help since your SO is busy as well.

As far as the Shettles method goes. Not a believer in it and no convincing research supports it.

 

[BoardingDoc]

Used the Shettles method

I prefer voodoo. It's equally effective, plus you get to sacrifice a goat!

 

[gutonc]

Why would you

like to have a baby at the end of my intern year

?
I did that...dude...IM intern...non-medical (now ex-) spouse....

About the only time during my 6 years of training that I could imagine having been a worse time for that would have been the beginning of intern year.

Are you 35+? Planning to have 8 kids and need to get the party started?

If neither of those are the case, what's the rush? Why not wait until one or both of you has a real job and can afford to take time off or hire help?

 

[PTPoeny]

The best people to talk with about this are the people in your own program after you match as every program is different. Caveat, I am not ob-gyn, however here is some information you need to find out from wherever you match before you make this decision. With the intern hour restrictions my program restructured so second year was more hours (especially overnights) than intern year and I know other programs in the same boat. I have no idea how getting rid of the intern hour restrictions will change the balance of hours in intern year versus second year. My program had a more rigid intern year as well and if you didn't finish intern year on time you had to extend training. This meant that women who had babies in other years could put together 8-12 weeks of maternity leave and not extend their training (this is not allowed in some specialties and many programs in other specialties anyways). But the one woman who had a baby intern year had to choose between the normal maternity leave and extending training or coming back at four weeks and finishing on time. (Acgme guarantees you 6 weeks of maternity leave, they don't guarantee you will graduate on time after taking those six weeks).

Are you expecting the family to move? It seems like you most likely will have the family support at all times in your training.

My path to having a family has been convoluted enough for me to support people starting families at the right time for themselves and finding a way to make it work. But right as you are trying to figure out the transition from intern to second year might be extra challenging and more work than a lot of other times. Halfway through intern year might even be easier, would your family be scandalized if you intentionally got pregnant before the wedding? Or just wait a few months so you would be due more like hallway through second year?

 

[MiaMia14]

Honestly, at my program it would be very very difficult to catch up if you had to miss due to being pregnant intern year. If you have any choice at all about it I would wait at least until 3rd year. Intern year you are JUST starting to feel comfortable by December. Before that you are going to feel so overwhelmed you won’t even know how you are functioning as a human....and after that is when you really start learning how to manage the floor, operate, etc. I think you would be doing yourself (and your program) a disservice to actively try and get pregnant while you were an intern. Our residents tend to plan it halfway through 3rd year-4th year. It’s when you will have the most time.

Also, as bad as it might sound I would anticipate some animosity from the other residents if you got pregnant very quickly into intern year...you aren’t established yet, and you are kindve the outsider as the intern/early second year and it may be looked at as you aren’t really there to work and learn. It’s not right, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were some emotions about it even if you end up at a program that is family friendly.

Unless there is a strong reason why you can’t wait a bit, I would let yourself get acclimated to residency....it is honestly the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, and I️ could not imagine trying to take care of a newborn at the same time... sometimes showering, eating, and having clean laundry is a real struggle. I recently got married and my husband is a legitimate saint. He already does WAY more of the normal day to day stuff around the house and I tend to feel very guilty about the amount of stuff I can do. If we had a kid, that responsibility would be even more on his shoulders and I personally wouldn’t be ok with that (obviously everyone’s situation and relationship is different). All of this is to say that even with people telling you how challenging residency is you aren’t going to understand until you go through it (especially an Ob residency), and I strongly feel that you should focus on getting comfortable with it before doing something that will drastically reduce your ability to focus.


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[deleted480308]

You can do it if you want but intern year sounds rough, and yes some peers will be frustrated when extra work dumps on them, and yes you may even graduate late if you are gone for awhile

But you are only this age once, just know there is an opportunity cost

 

[NotAProgDirector]

We have had lots of interns have babies. It works fine. It's all going to be program and specialty specific. If we know about the timing when we're making the schedule, it's much easier to deal with. But we'll deal with it in any case.