I found out recently that we're expecting baby #1 in September of my 4th year. This was a planned and wanted pregnancy and my husband and I are ecstatic... if not a little terrified! I'm pretty happy with the timing, but I'm sure there are going to be complications (morning sickness on 3rd year rounds, traveling/breast-feeding during interview season, etc). I guess I'm just looking for general advice from other women who have already taken the path that I am now embarking on. Thanks in advance!

I would also like to hear advice on this topic since I am planning my next pregnancy for the same time frame. I am a second year medical student with a toddler and hoping to finish medical school with one more!

This is the timing I did. I feel like it was slightly harder than I'd expected to be pregnant during 3rd year... but still overall a great time to do it.

I mostly had trouble being sick post-call mornings - we were Q4 overnight call on my pediatrics rotation when I was just 2-3 months pregnant and I would literally run out of rounds to go throw up, rinse my mouth out, and come back. But overall, people were very sympathetic and understanding about it - I did make it a point to tell people why I was throwing up, so they didn't think I had something contagious, and I think it was good for the people I was working with to know just in general.

I was surprised by just how TIRED I was while pregnant. My husband and I had talked when we planned it out about how being pregnant + a third year would basically be all I could handle, and he'd get stuck doing most of the laundry and cooking and such. It turned out to be much more true (and extreme) than we'd realized, though. I really just went to the hospital and slept for most of my harder rotations - if he hadn't been there to pick up the slack, I might have lived on snack cabinet saltines and peanut butter the entire 9 months.

Going back to even soft fourth year rotations was a bit harder than I'd expected - I basically got to work 60% time the first month back (when my baby was 3-4 months), and it was still very rough. My in-laws were in town to help much of my subIs, which was just great. I hadn't realized in advance how much of a help that would be.

Interviewing with a baby was perhaps both easier and harder than I'd expected. It was logistically not that bad - I did contact all the programs early on after scheduling the interview and let them know I would have to be ducking out for pumping breaks, and essentially every program (in my admittedly not all that competitive field) was fine about it; I actually rather appreciated the chance to see how accommodating and familiar with family-related issues each program was. The ways in which it was harder were: (1) it was hard for my husband to have the baby alone at night (although in some ways, I think this was good, too), and (2) I was floored to find myself tearing up in the security line the first few trips! I hadn't thought it would feel so hard to leave a ~7 month old baby for two days and one night, but it really did! I don't think it was bad, though.

Overall, I think the timing worked really well for me, and I'd do it this way again. I can't think of any thing else to mention, but do feel free to post/message with any other thoughts or questions...!

Yup, sick and tired pretty much sums it up. The worst clerkship for me was during the 2nd and 3rd months of pregnancy. I was barfing all the time and passing out asleep by 8pm every night. I ended up doing fine on the rotation, it just wasn't fun....Second trimester is much better!!

My baby is due summer of 4th year. I didn't realize it would be that big of a deal, but my school is encouraging us to do our sub-internships and specialty-specific rotations exactly during the summer months so we can get letters, have the grades on our transcript, etc. There is no way that's happening for me! For those of you who are still in planning stages, I would wait until fall to give birth (as much as that can be controlled ).

I'm so glad to see this forum here. I'm an M2, but my husband and I are wanting to have a baby during 4th year. We've been going back and forth between whether the fall or the spring of 4th year would be better. I guess my question to those who had a baby during the fall would be, how did you handle the step II, away rotations, applications, and all the other preparation before interviews? It seems like the spring of 4th year would be more laid back, but then the baby would still be so young when I started my intern year. Thanks for the advice! And congratulations, Junebug!

Step 2: This is the first year that some schools have started requiring Step 2 to be passed before they'll rank you, so I just put it off (I take it in about a month). Schools I wanted to go to that had said they wanted it done were willing to make exceptions for me. I think it would have been ok taking it earlier, though - pumping is the only issue, but you can stretch to two 4hour chunks if you need to one day, and you can definitely fit one pumping break in.

Interview: I did 7 interviews. I would fly in the night before in time for the dinner, stay overnight, interview, then fly back immediately after the interviews, so I was usually gone ~36h. I would pump the entire time, and bring the milk back in a cooler. It was slightly stressful - and I didn't try to share rooms / stay with friends, since it was logistically so difficult already - but it worked fine in my (admittedly non-competitive) field of interest. I did feel worse leaving my baby to interview than I'd expected, but it was ok. No worse than a call night.

I didn't do any away rotations.

Applications themselves are not a big deal, really. Get a CV together in advance... don't put off your personal statement (but really, it's not that bad).

I am overwhelmingly glad I had my baby when I did, so that she'll be ~ a year when I start intern year. For example, the feeling that it was harder to leave her for 36 hours for interviews at 7 months... imagine if I were an intern at that point instead! And dealing with pumping one day for step 2 is much, MUCH easier than dealing with pumping in a Q3 or Q4 ICU rotation (having friends who did the spring route, I can attest at least second hand to that side of it, too).

Feel free to post again or to message me if you want to ask more specific questions, also.

Fall of MS4 worked well for me. I took Step II while pumping, no prob with the multiple choice as you can take breaks in between blocks - I'm a fast test taker, though so I had "extra" break time. The clinical skills portion was also ok with pumping, they provided a place for me to pump.

I was really glad baby was 8 mos old at the beginning of intern year, younger would've been harder I think. Pumping as an intern isn't ideal, but possible with a supportive program.

I interviewed relatively late - Jan - so baby was nearly 3 mos by then. I'm also lucky that I only had 4 interviews, all in town. None of the programs mentioned the "late" interviews.

didn't do away rotations.

good luck!

Thanks for all the replies - they were very helpful! I've finished my 1st trimester and am feeling much much better. Fatigue and nausea were the hardest symptoms to deal with by far. I'm on my medicine rotation and I ended up alerting my teams and they were understanding when I had to sit down or duck out of rounds. (Interestingly, my attendings were all women so that might have had something to do with their sympathy.) Just a warning for those contemplating a similar plan: I DO think that feeling crappy affected my overall performance on this rotation (low energy, more distracted, etc), although I won't know for a month or so how that's been reflected in my grade.

The specialties I'm considering are not very competitive, so this summer I plan to do a few low key electives to solidify my specialty choice and get Step II out of the way before the baby comes. Anyone have advice on taking Step II in the mid-late third trimester?

Thanks again for the help - I'll keep you all updated.

I'm almost exactly a year ahead of you - I'm in my 4th year now and had a beautiful baby girl this past October.
I took Step 2 in my 3rd trimester and even though I scored lower on CK than I did on Step 1, it was doable. I took CS first, at the end of July (in my 7th month), then did a Sub-i in August and took the CK a few days after the Sub-i (in my 8th month). It was a little crazy taking the CK after a sub-i (especially since when I came home I was so tired and only wanted to go to sleep!) but I made sure to study a little every day and I ended up doing just fine. For me, the main thing was to get both CK, CS, and the sub-i out of the way before the baby came.
In terms of being pregnant during the exams themselves - during the CS, go to the bathroom at every opportunity! And for the CK, I'm a pretty fast test-taker so I was comfortable taking a break after every 2 blocks or so to go to the bathroom and eat and drink something. Sitting still for so many hours wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world but not the worst either.
Either way - I'm very glad I got the Step 2 out of the way before the baby came!
Just a note in response to your taking light electives this summer - if that means you'll be taking heavier electives after the baby comes, I would advise you to rethink that. I did my Sub-i in my 7th-8th months and though it was grueling, again, I'm happy I did it before the baby came. Plus, the residents were super-nice to me since I was so pregnant and sometimes let me go to sleep when on night float and go home early and such...
Congratulations on being done with your first trimester and glad you're feeling better!

I had a baby this past October as a 4th year. It's a great time as far as having the "senior-itis" schedule, because I get to spend a great deal of time with her. In fact, I'm horribly depressed about how much I'm going to miss starting in July...I've had to block it out of my mind or I tear up!

I took Step 2 CK around 26 weeks, and it was no big deal other than having to pee a lot. I'd take it as early as possible because by the middle of your 3rd trimester it is hard to breathe while you're sitting down. I couldn't even sit through a movie. I took CS at 5 weeks post-partum, and it also was no big deal (and even made me more "empathetic" to some SPs).

I interviewed starting at 4 weeks post-partum, and am going into a rather competitive field-anesthesia. I went to 10 interviews and took the baby to all but one. It got expensive because either my husband or another family member had to fly with me, so travel costs were essentially doubled. The one I didn't take her to, I flew out at 5 am and got back at 1 am the next day and was just sick missing her by the end of the day. The issue for me interviewing with a newborn was mainly fatigue. I was exhausted, especially with the early (November) interviews. Even the January interviews, when she was older and sleeping better I was tuckered out...travel and the whole experience of interviewing is just draining. Another issue was me not being able to keep my trap shut about having a new baby...I was so excited and proud that I brought it up in almost every interview. In retrospect, those two issues really affected my match, because I matched reallllllly low on my ROL...but, I matched.

I have been able to breastfeed with no issues whatsoever. The first few interviews I called ahead, but after that I realized how much downtime there is in the interview day and I stopped asking for permission and just wound up finding a place. Having battery power for your pump is key. And on most rotations I just pumped at lunch and didn't tell anyone.

Good luck! Enjoy being pregnant, as hard as that sounds. I really hated pregnancy toward the end, but it was so incredibly worth it. I had no idea how much I could love my baby until I had her, and it still blows my mind. I wish you all the best...it's exciting to see people excited to have their baby. Every woman who wants the experience of being a mother should get it, it is truly life altering, as corny as that sounds.