Having a baby as a very junior doctor. Total madness?

[ShortSharpScratch]

Thought I would use the shiny new topic to ask about something that’s been on my mind a lot recently. If anyone has any advice I’d love to hear it!

Due to taking a fairly winding road to medicine, as well as time out for research during medical school, I will most likely be 30 by the time I start the foundation programme, so around 32 when I start specialty training. The specialty I want to do is 7 years, run-through, so say I’m 39ish when I finish and that’s my prime child-bearing years gone.

I have always wanted kids (to be honest I’m only 27 and already broody as anything, I would have a baby tomorrow if that wasn’t a terrible idea) and I’m terrified of leaving it too late and having problems. But I want to balance that with not killing off my career before it’s barely begun. As far as it’s possible to plan these things, would it be total madness to think about having children quite early on? Like F2/ST1-2 early?

I used to work in medical training and I've seen plenty of trainees do this (including some who've had multiple mat leaves during their training to avoid disrupting their work once they're past CCT. I'd say go for it, as long as you're not going to be stressed about the rest of 'your' trainee group overtaking you.

You're not on an academic training pathway are you?

Family member did this x2 plus a GP I know. Good idea.

you will likely always find work so I would go for it. As long as you have done the first year or so after medical school and don’t take ages off, then I reckon it is a good idea.

Yes. Do it. Dont miss out on being a mummy for your career.

Wait until after FY2 otherwise you’ll get out of sync. You could TTC during the second half of FY2. LTFT seems more common during CT too. My friends core training will take at least 5 years as she’s 50% and about to have her second maternity leave!

I started maternity leave during my second house job (what would now be F2). I was then able to complete the pre-registration requirements by doing a part-time house job in a supernumerary role. This was 18 years ago; hopefully someone will be along shortly with more up to date experience.

It’s less flexible now sadly.

Other option is during university...I know several people who had babies when at uni but they had very supportive husbands! Also know someone who was 7 months pregnant sitting her finals then started her job in August with everyone else. Can’t imagine doing FY1 with a baby though.

I had my first DC 18 months after qualifying. I'd finished house officer jobs and did the first 6 months of an acute medicine rotation. Career suicide apparently. I worked LTFT and at times FT through training grades and had more children before CCT. I would definitely recommend doing it earlier! If there are any problems TTC you'll have longer to get any help needed. Also have an open mind about your chosen speciality, it may seem like what you want at the moment but plenty of us have changed our minds over the years after working in different areas! And that does affect the decisions you make about having a family. Good luck.

Thank you everyone for your replies! It's really helpful to get people's opinions.

mumonashoestring I'm trying to be as vague as possible because it's a small world and I think this has the potential to be really outing, but something like that.

It’s less flexible now sadly.
That's what I was expecting to hear to be honest, and what I've gathered from people around me. Funnily enough having a baby before I graduate is something DP and I have discussed, but financially it may be a terrible idea.

I think I need to accept that no time is ideal and that at some point I'll just have to bite the bullet, but I am a planner!

Fair enough :) Just be wary of taking too much time out if your funder has any limitations on grant periods, and also be wary of taking time out between programmes - there are restrictions on how long you can be out of training between foundation and specialty for instance without having to have your competencies reassessed before you can apply for your next training place. Your programme manager should be able to advise on that.

Mumonashoestring That's a really good point, and definitely something I need to take into consideration!

@ShortSharpScratch I know this thread is a couple of weeks old, I'm not clinical (I was admin and then retrained as a support worker to fit my health sake)

Here is my 2p worth of advice to you
Start TTC without putting any extra pressure on yourself. You already have enough with medical school (pressure I mean)

These things as you will know don't always happen exactly to plan and on schedule if you turn out to need a bit of help fertility wise (and I hope you don't) in some areas you need to be TTC for at least 1/2 years.

Re childcare to allow you after maternity leave - Going from the example of a friend who is now a GP but also lectures in uni before she qualified fully as a GP she had 5 children, Her original intention was to be a surgeon until she realised she struggled with it massively (all the blood - was the way she explained it)

Try to work out what help/back up you have
Her parents had retired by that point and so did her husband's parents to care for each child. Her husband was FT as well as he establishing his own GP practice

Research childcare facilities in your area - will you have to move often, do you think to get the chances at the rotations needed as you progress (whether pregnant or not)? For example, if you are in London you may be able to get away with not having to move for rotations although may involve a lot of traveling crisscrossing

It would be very different if was middle of the country so I'm just throwing out thoughts which may or may not be helpful.

Good luck

Sorry to hijack thread - only just found this sub-forum (after wishing for ages that such a topic existed on MN! )

@mumonashoestring - would you happen to know how many years out are ‘allowed’ between completion of Foundation & starting Core Training without needing this competency reassessment, and indeed what the latter would entail?

(I found out I was pregnant - unplanned - a few months into my F3 year, and have only just returned to clinical practice doing locums 2.5yrs later, with no immediate plans to apply for Core Training - but may have to rethink that!)

@ShortSharpScratch
I know this is a little old but I may have some relevant insight! I am in my final year of medical school and 15 weeks pregnant.

My school have been very supportive and I will be doing a modified elective project with minimal contact hours instead of a traditional one. My EDD is 1 week after my finals OSCEs (unfortunately we got pregnant the first month trying!) If I can't take my finals I will do a late sit around the time the baby will be 2 months.
I then plan to start F1 as usual in August when babe will be 4 months.
I'm lucky that my partner is planning to take a year out (he's a teacher) and that we are planning to move in with my mum in an area with a low FPAS competition ratio.

My plan is to aim to have second child at the very end of F2 so I can have a year (or more) before starting specialty training as the speciality I want is pretty competitive.

I highly recommend the book 'So you want to be a medical mum' which inspired me to take this approach (but has lots of stories from doctors who have done it at other points).