Hi. I posted a while ago under the general topics, but thought that this would be a better place to bring up my questions. My story, in a nutshell is that I just started my third year rotations and will be delivering twins right around New Year's. I have had a few months to digest the incredible change that our lives will be undergoing in a while and for the most part I am completely excited. I guess I would like to hear from anyone who gave birth during 3rd year. How did you handle the exhaustion? Did you find your teams to be empathetic or annoyed or both? So far, everyone has been great, but I am terrified that this will not always be the case and that some might be a little less than empathetic with my situation. I don't expect special treatment and am curious what your experiences have been like.
Thank you!

I have written about this a bunch of times... I had a baby in September of third year. :goodvibes: I recently wrote about my ward experiences in the general forum, but in brief, it wasn't that bad. I took call, rounded, etc. I took a rolling chair on rounds and sat at the rooms, which helped. I don't know if I could have done twins... I assume you are having an uncomplicated pregnancy? :crossfingers: Everyone was really nice and considerate. You are probably entitled to a day or so off each rotation, and don't feel guilty about taking them if you need to. Put your feet up at night. Good luck!

I just finished third year and am due at the end of this month, so I was pregnant for about 1/2 of third year. It was definitely manageable, although I am now doing a fourth year elective in my eighth month and it's getting harder and harder. I was supposed to work until a week before my due date but I'm ending more like three weeks before instead. I'm just too tired, and I move too slowly, even though it's a consult month so it's not as fast-paced as an inpatient rotation.

In terms of people's attitudes, it was fine, people were pretty reasonable, even in surgery. I missed two nights of call on surgery (I wouldn't expect that on medicine or peds, where you do a lot of your learning on call, but on surgery at my school it's just once a week call and you just follow the intern around, you don't actually admit pts and follow them, so it's not that much of a learning experience and with the long days on my feet I wouldn't have made it if I missed a night of sleep.)

Sometimes, you will need special treatment, in the sense that if you are in an 8-hr surgery, or having a busy call day on medicine where everyone is rushing around, you will need to stop and eat and drink. I happened to have a lot of nausea, vomiting and dizziness until the end of the second trimester, so I couldn't stand up or rush around quite as much as normal. People were always very nice about that, but they won't necessarily be thinking about you, so you will have to ask. Also, you will have to avoid radiation exposure, so you will occasionally miss procedures, but again I didn't have any problem with that.

So all in all I think it's pretty manageable. And it has not affected my grades, as far as I can tell so far. Good luck.

Wow, you guys amaze me! I'm 2 weeks into my OB/GYN rotation, NOT currently pregnant, and utterly exhausted. Personally, these 85 hour weeks are killing me and I know there is NO WAY I could do this while pregnant. I guess it just depends on the rotation. Can you schedule the easier outpatient rotations this semester? Are you planning to take the spring semester off? In any event, CONGRATULATIONS and make sure you take care of yourself, ok?

sadie, how long are you going ot be able to take off with the baby? i am thinking about having a baby 4th year so i am going to try to schedule the harder rotations early 3rd year. i did want to try to have the baby when most of 4th year is finished though. I am just curious how you are going to structure your 4th year with a baby?

First of all, congratulations! This is an exciting time for all of you and enjoy every minute of it. I found out that I was finally pregnant in October of my 3rd year, during Family Medicine, but with just one baby, not two! My due date was the last day of 3rd year, which gave us a good laugh about timing. However, she didn't wait that long...more on that later. My schedule was NOT designed with pregnancy in mind. Luckily I was sick during Psychiatry, an easier rotation, but then came back to my most difficult rotation, OB, after Christmas. I had OB and Surgery one after the other and that was HARD. I was in my second trimester during OB and dealt with it pretty well, but the hours during surgery just about did me in. I have to say though that nearly everyone that I encountered as far as attendings and residents are concerned showed a lot of consideration and understanding. Internal Medicine was my last rotation and I was allowed to sit as much as I needed and was always encouraged to eat . Then my blood pressure started creeping up and I was on my way towards preeclampsia. I delivered ten days before my due date and will have to make up some of IM, but again they are being very considerate. Adjust your schedule if you can at all to make life easier for you. I switched my Surgery and IM rotations without much trouble. Your body is undergoing tremendous changes and you will need a lot of rest and food! I carried food with me during Surgery and IM and would borrow a call room if I really needed the rest and didn't have anything pressing to do. I also missed a day or so during each rotation because I was sick and/or dehydrated. I felt no guilt! Take care of YOU and those babies! Time can always be made up, and hopefully you will find that people are more accepting than you anticipate.

to those who gave brith and are gviing birth during 4th year, how are you/ did you adjust your 4th year schedules? how much time did you take off?

Hello again--To answer a question, I am taking an extra year to graduate so I am spreading my fourth year over 2 years. I'm doing one elective now (July) and am due the end of August. I'll be off till April and will do easier rotations April and May and a sub I in June. I have to participate in next year's fourth year lottery to schedule the rest of the courses, but I plan to be almost full time next summer and fall, then interview in the winter and be home more until graduation.

I scheduled it this way because I didn't want to be off a full year, I wanted to have more time with the baby when he is a little older, and wanted to have time to plan the move after I match (I will be applying mostly in another part of the country.)

There are three other pregnant women in my class-two are taking a full year off, one is not taking a year off--she delivered in June so she will have two or three months off with the baby and then do a sub-I in Sept or Oct and then do the rest of her courses. She will graduate on time.

My school was pretty flexible about the schedule--there is some limit on how you spread the courses over two years so that you don't have to pay extra tuition, but it wasn't too hard to work out.

As far as timing, I took what would normally be 2 months off in 4th year and moved them to third year. So I got 9 weeks at home, but I have no time off 4th year. I am planning to have another baby at the end of 4th year as well :goodvibes: