Hi all, it's your friendly moderator again. I have some questions for those of you in practice, as I am about to start "the real world" next month and DH and I are contemplating the timing of baby #2.

When did you have children while in practice?
How long was your maternity leave?
Did you meet with any resistance/resentment from partners/coworkers?
Did anyone not go back to work afterwards?
What did you do about call coverage while you were on leave?
Did anyone use a baby nurse to help out around the house after the birth?

Thanks - looking for some ideas on how to proceed.

GracieThree

Gracie Three-
I will answer your questions as you posed them. I had my third child once I had made partner (three years out in practice) as a security measure to insure that I would not be terminated when I announced my pregnancy (I have a friend who had this happen). Getting started in practice is hard enough without putting a pregnancy in it. I took 8 weeks off (without pay) and strongly suggest it if you can pull it off. My partners (all men) were not the least bit happy about my maternity leave (which they referred to as my "vacation") but they tolerated it none the less. I had to make up all of the "missed call" when I returned from maternity leave. I took call up until 5 days before I delivered, which was insane but I survived it. We have a live-out nanny for our other children so our latest addition was easily absorbed into the mix by her. She came to help me even while I was still on maternity leave so that the older two could go on outings to the park, zoo, etc. My best advise is to get established in your practice before getting pregnant so that you (1) have a good understanding on how a pregnancy would be viewed and (2) are invaluable to the practice and will not be "let go" when you announce your situation to your partners. I know that sounds a little deceptive and paranoid but after the experience I had, caution is the operative word. The most supportive people in the office were the other women (nurses, secretaries, schedulers, etc.) who had been there and realized it wasn't easy. Unfortunately I had no female partners to commissurate with. Don't get me wrong, I would do it again in a heartbeat! All I am saying is think it through before you...well....you know. :rolleyes:

LOL - Only a man would refer to maternity leave as your "vacation".

That is unbelievable that your friend was terminated after announcing her pregnancy. Is she also an MD? Isn't that illegal based upon discrimination? Did the practice have to prove that she violated something in her contract? Wow. What did she do afterward?

Gracie,
My friend was employed by a large multispecialty group. They just terminated her without reason about 1-1/2 weeks after she announced her pregnancy. I think they banked on the fact that she wouldn't sue for wrongful termination (which it is and it is illegal) because she was only 1-1/2 years out of residency and didn't have the funds or confidence to do so. She found another job working for a university but now has to worry about tenure issues and research money production. It is a crime that they did it but it happens more than you think. Most companies are just smart enough to come up with some bogus reason for termination so they don't leave themselves open to litigation.

Hi momof3 -

Wow, that's appalling. Even more so because they got away with it! I'm so glad your friend found another job.

This is one of the main problems that I think women are going to face in medicine unless more of us speak out and blaze some new trails. As long as physician groups (or non-physicians, for that matter) can get away with pregnancy discrimination, they will. Hopefully as more women come into the field (I don't know about where you live, but there are only maybe two dozen women MDs in this cachement area of over a million patients), we'll have more options for pregnancy-friendly work environments.

Someone had an excellent post elsewhere on the forum that basically said we women physicians spend our child-bearing years in training or starting off our medical practices, and that people who don't like the fact that we are going to have children need to get over it. I agree!
It's so much easier said than done though.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.