There is hope for having a life and being an OB/GYN....
google search Laborist

now I do believe that most laborist positions require experienced OBs, but if you contract at a hospital that uses them, so many of those extra hours are taken care of. Whether this will be as popular as hospitalists has yet to be seen, but I think it will be a great boon to the profession, especially in my home state, there is a shortage of OBs.

I keep this in mind because I think I may really like OB too...but don't have the rotation for another month or so.

I wish I could tell you not to do Ob/Gyn... I wish I had found a specialty I loved more. But here I am, an OB/Gyn.

Though I haven't posted in a million years, I had to when I saw your post. My own road into medicine was complicated, but the decision to do OB much less so. I completed my residency in 2007 and spent two years in a practice that was a bad match for me. I left in September and have been a SAHM the past six months while my husband was mobilized (Army) and my oldest son diagnosed with Crohn's disease. Oh, yeah, I also had my oral boards in January and passed, thank God!

I will be going back to work in May, part time as a staff attending at the hospital where I was practicing. I'll be working two 12 hr shifts a week for a set salary and get an hourly rate for any additional work. No office! No call!

MFM is not anything like neonatology. MFM is obstetrics. It's a 3 yr fellowship after an OB/Gyn residency (though ACOG is considering a fast track option for the future). You would take care of high risk patients (lupus, complicated diabetes, difficult twin pregnancies+), perform and supervise ultrasounds, etc. Some choose to only do consults and u/s, some prefer to have patients in their care, and will do deliveries as well.

I would be happy to talk with you off forum in more detail. Residency sucks no matter what you do. It's what you want to do all day, every day that matters. PM me if ya want!

Linda

I am not the OP here, but I have been in a preceptorship for a bit in OB/GYn with a doc who is letting me learn A LOT hands-on, and I first assisted a c-section today....And he said I did really well! ARG - why do I have to love this so much already?

Please...tell me again? Ob/Gyn...I won't be happy? Are we sure about this? ??? I think I might be in love with this specialty, and it might not be puppy love.

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I feel the OP's pain here. I love this specialty so far! Everything about it! Please tell me what other specialty I can channel this to - I heart surgery/clinic/variety!

Thank you, Eema! You really are a hero for surviving all of that. I'm glad you found a gig that works for you.

To be totally honest, I probably would like MFM better than neo (I was an ICU nurse and really like the complicated stuff....and have this creepy obsession with ultrasounds). But, the bottom line seems to be that peds is a better lifestyle, even if I like OB more.

Love OB too. A very smart Cardiac anesthesiologist talked me out of it. I am currently in my last year of a FP residency with heavy emphasis on OB. Still love OB, but I get to see my peds, Geriatric and male patients too. I will never forget just a few months ago scrubbing on a c-section (first assist not primary) and breaking scrub right after because the baby was krumping. Great feeling being the jack of trade and master of none. And yes, FP has its fair share of geriatrics, just what you are comfortable managing.

I am currently a third year medical student. I have read this thread off and on as I have had the neonatology/OB debate with myself.

I am very interested in women's health and babies. I was wondering if anyone has heard of family practice w/ OB running a primarily women's and children practice. Do you think this type of practice would be practical and sustainable?

Also, how does the cost of malpractice insurance and the need to find an OB as back up effect the reality of going into FP w/ OB?

medimom, I think your idea is fantastic! I am an ob/gyn and would love a FP in our practice. There are so many women who use their ob/gyn as their primary care physician (we aren't really trained in primary care at all, so I am not sure why this trend seems to exist)and would be better served if someone trained in primary care was in the practice while the ob/gyns stick to more surgical gyn issues. While this arrangement might not work well with some ob/gyns, it's been my experience so far that most would be more than happy with the benefits this practice set-up would afford. It might be a little difficult to find an 'ideal' practice like this for you though, it is kind of a radical idea but you would be wise to pursue it. Maybe you could brainstorm with some of the ob/gyns you work with now during your residency to see what their opinion on the matter is. Another option is for you to do a year-long 'OB fellowship' for family practice physicians. Many smaller communities don't have any ob/gyns and their family practice physicians do all their own c-sections and even some general surgery cases (appys, choles, etc). You might want to seek out the ob fellowship route where you can learn to perform c-sections. Good luck!

I have heard that many FP's do kind of "specialize" in their preferred patient population. So you may just do women health and lets say pediatrics, others choose to do only geriatrics and adults, etc.

I think the more deliveries you do, the more your practice becomes about moms and babies. I have a very female, OB and pedi oriented practice. I am also the only one in my office putting in IUD's, and I could have been the one doing Implanon but I turned it down for a variety of reasons. I have my share of male patients and menopausal women (my least favorite subset) but I have definitely skewed my practice b/c of OB.

Sorry- late post but had to chime in. Fam Med with OB is not extinct especially if you do academic FM with a residency program. Most FM docs don't do OB because it is not something they enjoy-- they just drudge through their OB rotations in residency so that they can set up their practice the way they want. I'm sorry to offend anyone, but I don't understand why if you like OB and Peds then why you wouldn't do FM. If you are in practice long enough then you get to deliver the babies of the patients that you delivered as babies. In FM you get to do a lot of office gyn (EMBs, IUDs, paps, colpos, implanon, etc.)-- and most FM docs set up their practice the way they want- OB heavy, geriatrics heavy, etc. I had a colleague who trained with me in FM and then moved to rural Washington state where she started to do C-sections with a local OB since he was transitioning into retirement. Then she got tired of it and moved to the East Coast and did strictly palliative care (talk about 180 degrees). I know FM gets a bum rap. My family on the East Coast still doesn't understand what kind of dr. I am, but I was really surprised when I moved to a smaller city than the one I grew up in and they had no idea what FPs do. FM docs also have less malpractice concerning obstetrical privileges since we usually do lower risk cases.

With that being said, if you really like the complicated cases and the major surgeries then do go into OB, but as other posters said spend time with OB residents and watch female OB attendings to get a full grasp of the experience. The world does need OB docs and good ones at that.