I had my daughter at 40. It was a combination of getting through the terrible hours of training and then a series of shitty life events that made it so late.
For me, I just could not see how we could have survived the years of out of hours/night on-calls and the many nights studying for professional exams or writing research papers into the small hours. My husband is a hero for putting up with it all even just with the two of us.
I am in absolute awe of the juniors who are doing it all - they are superwomen in my eyes.
And then there were a string of family bereavements, and time flew.
I am aware how very lucky we were to have my daughter - it wasn’t the plan to wait so long. And things could be very very different.
I thought we’d be TTC once I finished my training at 32, which isn’t late by today’s standards.
The one thing I would say is that it is so much easier - I have a bit more autonomy over my working life and am not having to relocate every year. Also, by the time I had her, I’d had a taste of senior responsibility in the region, and knew that this was sufficient for me. I didn’t want to have a National role or to be high profile in my field. I don’t know whether, had I had her much earlier, I’d have had moments of wondering ‘what if’, or worse, resenting her for holding back my career. I like to think and hope I wouldn’t have, but you just don’t know.