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When’s the best time to have a baby during radiology residency?
I know it’s not the most PC question, but I want to have my kids before 35, and the clock is ticking…
I want to do my best for my career and for the child (will have grandparents to help). My concern is mostly about exams – balancing studying with having a baby/being pregnant, when’s the best time? Also, any thoughts about radiation exposure and being pregnant (expecially during the first 3 months when it’s too early to tell anyone yet the most sensitive time for the fetus)? I’m even open to taking a year off and using that time to study + take care of baby/having a baby (but don’t know if that’s better or worse for the program).
Any advice would be really appreciated. -
35 Replies
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Second year after fluoro rotation finished.
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ORIGINAL: OutpatientRadRules
Second year after fluoro rotation finished.
to get pregnant or give birth?
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There is no good time. Just pick the time when it is right personally for you, and then make do with the rest.
Rotations with fluoro: either delay them until after, or do them early and get them over with. Do not under any circumstances let anyone convince you to do fluoro while pregnant. Even though the chances you will harm your fetus is small, if there is any congenital defect at all present, you will always second guess yourself later on. Even if the defect is not related to radiation, you will never be totally rational about it because it affects your own child. In my program, the female residents covered for one another when it came to fluoro. Actually, some of our guys were pretty generous about it too. It helps to be in a family friendly program.
Call: you will miss some, and others will have to cover for you. You will have to “pay” others back later. Early in your career as a resident, be generous with covering other people’s call when they have the need. You can “bank” the good will for later on when it comes time for you to have to impose on others.
Internship year: the most gruelling time of your career as a resident, and probably the most difficult time to be pregnant, in my opinion. In my internship program, I saw people required to take call while febrile and sick with pneumonia, just after a D&C for a miscarriage, just after a parent’s death, etc. Basically, no one is that sympathetic to a prelim intern. I don’t know why this is so — envy maybe?
PGY II-IV/Physics and Written boards: Start studying early. Do not do what typical residents do and wait until a couple of months before the exam to start. Pay to take a course if you have to. Many residencies do not let their R1’s take call for six months — do not waste this time goofing off. Study to stay ahead of the game. Believe me, you will hardly be able to crack a book open during your 1st (you will be incredibly tired) and 3rd (you will be incredibly huge AND tired) trimesters, so start early.
PGY V/Oral boards/Fellowship: again, start studying early and take at least two courses, one of which should be a hot seats type. If you give birth late in your senior year, consider taking a year off before fellowship. You can work part-time per diem and spend more time with your baby during his first year of life.
In my program, we had women have babies from R2-R4 year. Each year has it’s own unique challanges.
If you take time off to have a baby, it will make it harder for others in the program. They will have to find a person to take your place. If they don’t replace you, your classmates will have to take more call. Since it’s not really necessary, I wouldn’t bother.
Anybody else with thoughts on this?-
I know a person who had their youngest child at age 38.
Met a patient today who was breastfeeding at age 39.
And I could go on…
Who said age 35 is some type of cutoff??
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The time when it doesn’t screw over your fellow residents…..
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ORIGINAL: DangerMouse
The time when it doesn’t screw over your fellow residents…..
Haha.. spoken like a true selfish person! haha.. funny.
Seriously though.. there is no good time to have a baby during residency. No matter what the first few months will be hell — it becomes such a large life adjustment. Studying will also be nonexistant during the first few months (or longer depending on the temperment of the baby).
The best time would be to deliver your baby in June of your final year (AFTER your exams).
Having said all of this having a baby will be the BEST THING IN YOUR LIFE!
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Just do it.
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If you have a live in mother – or a live in mother-in-law, it would make it a lot easier.
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Quote from SadRad
Who said age 35 is some type of cutoff??
Ummmm nature? fertility drops off for women pretty steeply between 35-40. SMH
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the best time to get pregnant is probably in the fall after writtens. this way you would give birth in the beginning (summer) of your fourth year. the first 6 weeks are usually very difficult for new parents since typically the baby must be fed every 2 hrs or so. once you get over that hump, it will be near january when you will have to start studying for orals and hopefully by then the baby will be sleeping entire nights.
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first year of rad: why? no freaking call. new rules: no call for first year starting in 2008.
internship: go to greenwich or what is that place in delaware? 6 months of outpatient, no wards….yeah, that is really rough….
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i share radiohead’s sentiment: just do it. it’ll only get harder with time. residencies are used to moving schedules around because people get sick, drop out of the program, new additions to program, etc etc. it’s great that you’re thinking about others, but it’s your life (and your child’s), and that alone should make you put your interests first. it’s not being selfish, it’s just life… literally.
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Sadrad there was a huge article recently on MSNBC talking about infertility. Go talk to any fertility specialist and have them show you the graphs of fertility rates at any given age and notice the header fertility rates take starting in the early 30’s (oddly enough the exact time most people are in residency) The jist of it is that infertility in the mid 30s for women is very REAL and not as easily overcome as the hollywood media make it out. I know first hand how extremely traumatic, to both couples, this is to find out that at 34 you have already waited too long.
We had multiple residents get pregnant during my residency, sure it was more work for the rest, but you know what, eveyone got through it fine. Have a child when you are ready. Your residency will deal with it and if they cannot they need to get their heads out of their rears.-
it’s hard to time pregnancy relative to board exams and rotations – sometimes life happens; other than that i agree with a previous poster who suggested the end of 3rd yr after writtens and nursing the baby through the 1st 6 months of 4th yr before the last big push for orals. having 2 children total seems to be popular now, and if you wanted to do that during the 4 yrs of residency i would imagine that having the 1st one early on may be a good idea.
you seem to have one of the ingredients of people who are going to do just fine – and that’s being considerate to think about others in the residency and the fluoro months, etc. the 2nd ingredient would be if you have an understanding PD and cohort of residents. the 3rd is, like SadRad said, having good family support – a husband who can help out, and hopefully mother or mother-in-law who can help you. the most important thing will be relying on yourself – to study like crazy and save up knowledge “surplus” that will help you through he sleepless nights when opening a book will be the last thing you think about.
whatever you decide, you ought to know that being a parent will trump every other “accomplishment” you’ve ever attained. nothing compares to it. and this isn’t some sentimental nonsense. good luck to you.-
Why is everyone in such a hurry to have a kid.
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what itenerary said.
but if youre still under 32 Id still wait till after residency…In residency youll get by the pregnancy bit and having the baby and all…the hard part is taking call/night float if/when you have a baby at home.
jmho-
I love how plan oriented everyone is, even when it comes to a joyous moment.
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i had the same question last year. bottom line: whenever you want, but having the baby the last 6 months before oral boards will make it harder to study, but not impossible. There will never be a perfect time.
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I know of two colleagues who had 2 kids each during residency. Both where very good keeping this aspect of their private life from interfering with other residents work and learning experience.
Realistically, there is no good or bad time. The ‘no call’ first year comes to mind, in most programs however that seems to be the time when most fluoro rotations are clustered. In 2nd and 3rd year you are more likely to run into scheduling issues with IR rotations. I would try not to be pregnant around the oral boards. For most people, they are a period of massive stress, not getting sleep (pregnant or with a newborn) certainly doesn’t help.
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There is no good time. Let me tell you, I am practicing now, and it still sucks. Don’t get me wrong, I love my kid more than life itself, but doesn’t mean he doesn’t take up all of my time.
Just go ahead and have the kid, whenever it is convenient. There will be tough times, but let me tell you, the good outweighs the bad.
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1. Most importantly – whenever you feel the time is right.
2. Take out a loan and hire a full-time night nanny (for the first few months) and whatever full time help you can get.
3. Ignore people like “danger mouse.”
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ORIGINAL: DangerMouse
Why is everyone in such a hurry to have a kid.
I know a reproductive endocrinologist. His best customers are physician and successful attorney couples. Money to burn on IVF and usually waited too long.
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Dangermouse–two reasons–Try chasing a three yo around at age 45 or 50–not good! Second rising infertility as you age–get it done early or you will regret it!
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Just do it. A child is the best thing that will happen in your life so why put it off?
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Never. Even after residency.
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Double up on lead for flouro and wear your abd badge. You will find that it will be about zero. I don’t know if you will have the luxury of keeping a pregnancy a secret for the first 3 months.
No good time to have a baby.
Just do it. Life will have to adjust around it.
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3rd year is supposed to be the best after writtens and before you start studying for orals…thoughts?
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avoid all radiations and sick people for the first three months, fluoro/nucs/ultrasound/interventional.
what are you left with: still a heck of a lot, sitting on your butt and dictate.
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Nice to see all these encouraging replies. i guess none of them are from my program.Hopefully some of these positive replies are from males. I am a female resident who went ahead and had a kid during residency.Believe me, i love every moment of my life even though i never get time to relax it is still so worth it. You will face creeps in your residency who will let you know in someone how inconvenient it is for other people, blah blah. these will be mostly single guys or old geezers whose children have already left homes.Just ignore them.You cant ignore yr personal life for yr professional one but vice versa as well. Have a good work ethics,read whenever you can and work hard and people will respect you.Have a baby anytime before yr senior year.
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well ..in the words of the first female surgical resident at Duke..”Dr. Sabiston…I will put my uterus in a box for you.” (paraphrase).
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Between written boards in the summer of 3rd year and oral boards at the end of the 4th year is more than 1 1/2 years, and that’s plenty of time to have a child.
Regarding other residents having to pick up the slack I think it’s a moot point as long as the missed call days are eventually made up by the child-bearing resident. It’s easier to receive charity than give it of course, so those on the receiving end will think it’s great and those giving it will grumble, but if the resident ultimately does the required number of call days then no charity has been rendered. No reason to complain.
It’s an interesting thought, though, as an aside, to imagine what would happen if other residents could also take time off for things that required hard work but were of personal benefit. Say someone wanted to do medical volunteer work in another country, or take months off to take a studio arts course. The argument against that might be that these things are voluntary. But so is timing of pregnancy. I guess the best argument is that having children is something people have to do eventually and it’s just a matter of when. The earlier you start the better. It’s an odd situation though where more sacrifice is expected from outside people than would be asked under most other conditions, barring serious illness.
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I think the sooner you start planning your pregnancy the better. I can also say that everything is individual. There are many cases in whom the uterus is bent, one woman does not have time to have abortions, and the other with the same bouquet cannot become pregnant. I have had unstable periods since the age of 16. Sometimes they were absent for half a year. To be honest, I thought I couldn’t get pregnant. She even told her husband that if something happened, we would take the baby from the baby’s house. I can also recommend reading the expert opinion on problem pregnancies and solving problems with conception on the site fertially.com. While live for your pleasure, without pills and vitamins, I think everything will come by itself.
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talk about thread necromancy
This thread is from 2007… the baby they had is 14 years old now.
The syntax , and the mention of ‘bent uterus,’ ‘bouquet’, and ‘pills and vitamins’.. makes it sound like the message was posted by a bot and not a physician-
Whatever happened to OutpatientRadRules?
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Quote from Flounce
talk about thread necromancy
This thread is from 2007… the baby they had is 14 years old now.
The syntax , and the mention of ‘bent uterus,’ ‘bouquet’, and ‘pills and vitamins’.. makes it sound like the message was posted by a bot and not a physicianI saw my reply and thought ‘I don’t remember typing that’…. Getting old, CRS is setting in.
Yeah, the kid in the OP is by now 14 and mom probably thinks ‘and all I wanted was a back-rub’ after another argument about missed homework or violations of cellphone curfew.
That post looks like the output from google translate. There may well be a human being with a train of thought behind it but they composed it in Thai and ran it through a translation program.
As for the question ‘when is the best time ?’ With 14 years hindsight, my answer is: ‘2 years after you make partner’ 😉
For the OPs scenario: It doesn’t matter when. Just get started and deal with the situation. Next thing there is a global pandemic and all your well laid plans go by the wayside.
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