Pregnancy during PhD?

[Amber17]

Advice please! I’m a clinical PhD student with a medical job to return to afterwards. I’m in my 30s, married, mortgaged, etc. On paper this seems like the perfect time to TTC - none of the higher miscarriage/prem labour risks from my usual job.
But, I’m worried about taking time out in the middle of my PhD and then finishing it. My research is data based so no issues with that, but I’m concerned about my literature reviews being outdated by the time I submit, and the challenges of writing up with a baby.

Anyone done this or supervised students who have? Any tips?

I know quite a lot of people who had babies during their PhDs. It certainly can be done. I'd check you know exactly how funding will work (especially if you take longer writing up as a result of the baby). I guess the gamble is that you might find having a baby makes the PhD drag on for much longer - would this be a financial issue/an issue with the job you're planning to return to? And what would you do if you didn't get pregnant when you planned - would you fix a stage in your PhD after which you'd stop trying?

I do think writing with a small baby is possible but it is not fun, and sleep deprivation does really awful things to your concentration. If you do end up deciding to give it a go, I would really recommend sitting down as early as possible and making a plan of your thesis, in the smallest chunks of writing possible, so that you can tackle small, reasonably self-contained units of writing rather than staring at whole chapters going 'argh, did I write this bit already?' That is broadly how I wrote my book when my baby was tiny, and if I'd done a conventional 'I'll write this chapter all in one go' it would never have got written.

If your PhD is funded by Wellcome or RCUK, they should have maternity leave provision in roughly the same way as a job.

I know many women who took time out of their research degree to have a baby and hardly any of them finished it.

Pregnancy, child birth and caring for a tiny baby 24/7 can be very tough. It rots your brain in ways you can’t imagine right now.

It’s almost impossible to work analytically and write cogently when you’ve had no more than 3 hours continuous sleep for months and you know that any moment now your baby will wake and start screaming for you.

In addition, most women find that their male partner expects them to do all the housework and wife work while they are on maternity leave. Plus they are usually expected to carry out all the social obligations to both their own family and his family, as they are “ on leave “.

That doesn’t leave a lot of quality time to write up.

Of course you may have a easy pregnancy and delivery and a low maintenance, sleeping baby. And a partner who respects the work you do in caring for his child. And a family who understand that you are also working part time. And friends / relatives who come to take your baby out for the afternoon so you can work.

And you may find it easy to switch off from your baby and find it relaxing and enjoyable to work on your PhD for the odd hour here and there.

I've just finished my PhD and I had a years maternity leave in the middle. I started it when my daughter was 5 months and then had my son half way through. I was funded so I got 6 months maternity pay amd I took 6 months unpaid. Took me 5 years to finish in total - 4 years without the mat leave. It's totally doable - there's just not a lot of time to waste and I had to be very focussed and say no to interesting but ultimately time-wasting opportunities.

I had two babies during my PhD! But I don't recommend it really, and I was exhausted for about two years afterwards doing the final push (the PhD push, not the baby push). Look into funder money for maternity leave, many have to offer it now. I think it depends where you are in the PhD when you do this and how much support you have to finish, my partner pretty much forced me to carry on when I wanted to quit, in the nicest possible way and of course I'm glad now I did.

Thanks for all the viewpoints and advice. This is no longer hypothetical as I am pregnant! Due about a week before I was going to return to clinical practice and start writing up.
I’m hoping that having that deadline will be a good motivator to get the research done and leave as little as possible for after the baby arrives.
Funding isn’t a huge issue - without going into detail, I’ll be treated as an employee and I think I qualify for enhanced mat pay.
I’ve already mentioned to my husband about him dropping a day at work so I can have a day a week during mat leave to write up, maybe from 4-6 months onwards depending on how the 4th trimester goes, though I realise this is probably a lot of first time parent optimism!

Ooh, congratulations! I hope all goes very well.

Congratulations, and if you are on board together, you will find a way to make this work!

Congratulations! I know it has been a long time but I'm in roughly the same position you were when this was posted. How did everything work out? Did it go as planned or do you wish you waited?

Nothing really went as planned - I’m laughing that I said the risks of prem labour were lower than in my usual job as I ended up delivering at 32 weeks! Left my research very abruptly as a result. Got nothing done on mat leave, came back at 9 months postpartum and had a few months doing 4 days a week before I returned to clinical work. I’m still writing up with a 2 year old.

I don’t think I’d change anything though. I did have to redo some literature reviews and the field has moved on, and writing up work I did ~3 years ago is a pain, but I wouldn’t delay having my kid to finish my PhD. Also wouldn’t have not done the PhD, the variety that academia adds to clinical life is brilliant.

Just to say - I had my daughter at the end of my 2nd year PhD - and she was 3 when I graduated!