Need advice - I am pregnant - match or year off

[lyalya5]

I just finished my interviews when I found out I am pregnant (would be due at the end of September of my intern year). The timing is less than ideal and now I do not know what to do. Do I go ahead with the rank list and then tell the programs after I match? Do I tell PDs now and see what they would recommend? Do I take a year off and then reapply? Not even sure if this is an option at this point.

If I start my residency I would like to take 12 wks off. Is this possible? I am also considering taking a year off, but I am worried about how would this be perceived by PDs and would it hurt my chances of matching in the future with the same programs.

I appreciate any advice.

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[cali-ob]

first of all, are congratulations in order (ie are you happy about this?). If so, then congrats.
I would not tell anyone anything at this point. Wait until you match, then you can let them know after you've signed your contract and at that time, you can put in your schedule request for vacation or leave during that time. Residents, including interns, get pregnant and have babies all the time, they will be able to deal with it and you will too.

 

[dragonfly99]

Agree with above. You certainly could take a year off, and I think if you are a strong candidate it wouldn't necessarily hurt your application much or maybe at all (assuming you are doing a nonsurgical field). However, since you've already interviewed, etc. I would just forge ahead. Do not tell the programs anything now. You CAN have a baby and make it work. I hope you have some partner/spouse and family support wherever you end up, though. If you are doing IM or peds or something, they all have at least one outpatient intern month, so they can probably fix your schedule so you have an easy month when you are really, really pregnant. Maternity leave allowed can vary program to program - most allow 8 weeks I think. I don't know about the 12 weeks, but you can discuss that with your PD after you match...it might cause you to have to extend your training, if they let you do it, but that would be OK.

 

[tr]

I would withdraw from the match and take a year off.

Having a kid is ridiculously hard. Being an intern is ridiculously hard. Why torture yourself? Are you really going to take q4 overnight call while puking yourself silly every few hours?

In addition, you will be screwing over all the other PGY-Is who will have to cover for you when you are MIA for 8 weeks - or even 12 (that's 3 rotations, a quarter of the year). (Which anyway is really not enough time to be ready to dump your kid on Grandma or whoever and head back to work.) You are going to create a lot of bad blood - especially if people figure out that you knew you were pregnant in time to have withdrawn and saved everybody involved (but most of all yourself) a huge headache.

You can withdraw from the Match anytime prior to Match day but absolutely not afterwards. Of course you make life easier for everyone by telling the programs earlier rather than later.

Do everyone a favor and take the year off. Believe me programs are much less likely to hold this against you than they will the alternative.

By the way. You will likely have to tack your maternity leave onto the end of your residency no matter what. ACGME rules require a certain number of months of training and you can't be board-certified if you don't do all 48 (or whatever) months.

So if you don't take the year off now, you'll finish off-cycle at the end. And if you're aiming for fellowships, you may have to sit out the rest of the year in order to start the fellowship on time the next year. In which case you will have effectively lost the year anyway, *and* tortured yourself, your husband, your child, and all of your miserable co-interns.

 

[cali-ob]

I think the above post, while well meaning, is a little negative and off base.
You do not have to take the year off, unless you want to. Keep in mind, you take the year "off" and you'll be starting the whole application cycle over again in a few months, with a newborn! That just doesn't seem worth it to me anyway.
Depending on your specialty, your time away need not affect anyone but you. As long as you are upfront and proactive as soon as you match, your schedule should be able to be configured in such a way as to allow you to be on a lighter rotation as dragonfly mentioned (out patient or elective) when needed. And when you come back, you come back and do your job.
Maternity leave does vary by program. And if you use more than your allotted 3 or 4 weeks or whatever or vacation time you get, then you will have to extend your traning by a few weeks to a month or so. Not a big deal. And if you want to do fellowship, you still can, many programs will allow you to start a month late or whatever the case may be. You cant worry about all that down the line stuff. Anything could happen down the line. People get sick and have to take time off, family members get sick and have to take time off. It can and will work out if you want it to and above all, keep the lines of communication open from the beginning (after you match).
I have 2 kids, it can be done.
As for being sick, everyone doesn't get sick. Some people have horrible morning sickness all the way up to emeis gravidum, requiring feeding tubes, most just get a little sick in the first trimester which will be over for you by the time you start residency, and some people never even dry heave.
Most women find they feel pretty great (increased energy, happy) during second trimester which is where you will be when you start.
I recently delievered 2 pgy-1s here at my hosptial. one was EM, one was prelim IM (radiology) they are both doing fine and no one seems pissed at them. Ultimately, you do what you think will be best for you, but I think it is totally doable.

 

[dragonfly99]

Agree with cali-ob. I think a lot of this depends on what specialty you are planning to do, also. If it's neurosurg or general surg or ortho, I'd be more inclined to tell you to take the year off. However, going through the Match again would totally suck, and you may do less well next year - it sucks but programs like freshly minted new medical students, and there are still a few dinosaurs who might discriminate against a woman with a small baby (in the application/Match process). It will also cost you more money and time to re-interview. Nobody can truly tell you what to do, though - it's your choice.

We actually have had PGY1 and PGY2 residents have babies in my IM program, and it truly wasn't a problem. I mean, there's pretty much never more than one person/year, and we don't even notice any scheduling problems. As is, there are always several people/month on outpatient rotations, so it's not that hard to modify their schedules so that it really affects the rest of us minimally, if at all.

If the OP is doing something like derm or a transiational year, her being gone for a couple of months is really not going to be a big deal. For IM she'll have to eventually do a certain number of call months, outpatient months, etc. but most residency programs know how to deal with this. For the record, I'm not even sure that residents who missed 8 weeks had to finish IM residency late...they might have, but I don't remember it being much of a problem. I don't know if they tacked on their vacation weeks to their maternity leave, etc.

I don't think the OP needs to assume that all the other house staff will resent her...that hasn't been the case at my program, and it's a pretty intense high powered IM residency. Usually there just aren't enough people pregnant/on maternity leave to affect others' schedules significantly, in larger specialties like IM/peds.

 

[lyalya5]

Thank you to everyone who replied. There is now just a few days left before the submission deadline. I keep going back and forth in my head. I should have said in my original post that I am happy about being pregnant; it is just that the timing is not ideal. Also I am not applying to a surgical subspecialty. I was worried about some of the things tr mentioned - that my absences and the need to cover for me would affect everyone in the program. It sounds like other people have not seen that be a huge problem. But more than anything I am worried about not being fully present and doing a good job in either place: for the residency or for the baby. Of course I do not want to go through the application process again, but if it is better for the baby.... I don't know; is it more important to be present for the 1st year of baby's life than any other year?

 

[tr]

But more than anything I am worried about not being fully present and doing a good job in either place: for the residency or for the baby. Of course I do not want to go through the application process again, but if it is better for the baby.... I don't know; is it more important to be present for the 1st year of baby's life than any other year?

Better for the baby or better for you? The baby is not going to remember the first year of his own life. But you are going to be stretched really thin. I dunno, it just sounds exhausting.

Regarding coverage issues, I guess this is really program-dependent. Nobody had a baby in our PGY-1 but another PGY-1 class had 3 people take leave for various reasons, and it had a significant impact on the other 1s as well as on residents from other years, and there certainly was a lot of resentment towards the people who took time off.

Why don't you try and speak directly with residents from each of the top 3 programs on your ROL? I wouldn't reveal the information about pregnancy, but you could say that you are thinking about starting a family in residency and you wonder how this has worked out with previous residents.

Perhaps this information could help you reach a decision about whether it is best to defer or not, or even just to rearrange your match list a little.

 

[pillowhead]

just to point out that it doesn't necessarily get any easier as they get older. sure, they're sleeping through the night after a few months which is great. but a two year old has a lot more energy and will miss her mom a lot more than an infant. Infants are easy in a lot of ways. They mostly just need their basic needs met, they don't play all day and get into a lot of trouble.

 

[Charmed2009]

Why don't you try and speak directly with residents from each of the top 3 programs on your ROL? I wouldn't reveal the information about pregnancy, but you could say that you are thinking about starting a family in residency and you wonder how this has worked out with previous residents.

I think this is a terrible idea. If she speaks to the residents before ROL are due, it would likely (though unfortunately) be a red flag to the department. If she speaks to the residents after ROL are due, it is a moot point and she should wait to see where she matches.

just to point out that it doesn't necessarily get any easier as they get older. sure, they're sleeping through the night after a few months which is great. but a two year old has a lot more energy and will miss her mom a lot more than an infant. Infants are easy in a lot of ways. They mostly just need their basic needs met, they don't play all day and get into a lot of trouble.

I agree with this wholeheartedly. I have a four month old and will be starting residency this year. She is easy to please and will not remember the first year of life, so it will actually be an ideal time to be an intern as long as quality child care is secured, which we are working on.

To the OP - what did you decide to do? Congratulations on your pregnancy and best of luck! As a mom, feel free to PM me with any questions.

 

[Tigerz_Fan]

Can I speak from personal experience?

I applied late for fellowship. Why? Because my husband and I wanted to take time off to have a baby.

I had some explaining to do about this. Then, a program's worry can become, well will she always take time off for personal reasons. And so forth....

Do the Match. You will be fine. I have learned that programs do support women in this situation. For some reason, they really just don't like a person to take time off...

 

[dragonfly99]

Can I speak from personal experience?

I applied late for fellowship. Why? Because my husband and I wanted to take time off to have a baby.

I had some explaining to do about this. Then, a program's worry can become, well will she always take time off for personal reasons. And so forth....

This is sucky...people don't like us to take maternity leave, they don't like us to take a year off to have a baby (thus not NEEDING maternity leave), oh yeah they don't like us to leave our kid in daycare b/c that is selfish (but it's not selfish for men to have jobs and leave their kids in daycare).

You go tigerz_fan
Don't listen to the naysayers.
OP, good luck with whatever you decide to do.

 

[Tigerz_Fan]

So, I'm bringing this thread back to life...

I had decided to stop trying for a baby (we were trying for 2 years), and accept a fellowship position in CCM to start July 1.

And, 2 weeks ago, I found out that I was pregnant. And of course, found out 1 week before my doc appt to get back on the pill.

My future program's response? "Really, are you serious?? You ARE going to let us throw you the baby shower, right?!?" God I love them!!!

 

[sade]

So, I'm bringing this thread back to life...

I had decided to stop trying for a baby (we were trying for 2 years), and accept a fellowship position in CCM to start July 1.

And, 2 weeks ago, I found out that I was pregnant. And of course, found out 1 week before my doc appt to get back on the pill.

My future program's response? "Really, are you serious?? You ARE going to let us throw you the baby shower, right?!?" God I love them!!!

Hope it's not late congrats tigerz_fan!!
I was searching for this information got my own nit picking to do.