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Lactation Information and Discussion <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Fri, 27 Apr 2001 17:51:42 EDT
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Residency training for women physicians has been notoriously harsh in
granting maternity leave.  (Probably less so now in pediatrics, as the field
is 50% or more female.)  Yet, women are faced with the "biological clock"
problem just at the time in their lives they are in residency and early
medical practice.  Women in medicine need to be proud, not apologetic, to
state that their kids/family ARE more important than their jobs.  This
includes reasonable maternity and breastfeeding/parenting leave.

There is an "I suffered so they have to suffer" attitude on the part of
residency programs which flies in the face of current studies on fatigue as a
contributor to medical error.  This sorely needs to change.  Practices hiring
young women physicians need to take into account time needs for childbirth
and parenting.

When I had my kids after I finished my pediatrics residency in 1979-82, I was
able to arrange to take 2 months of maternity leave and work 30 hours/week
with no night call (I had to see ill patients in the office every Sunday and
holidays as part of the 'no night call' deal).  It was busy, but worked.  My
husband was a neurology resident at the time, so I had the brunt of the
childcare/housework, etc., as well.  I don't think I could have handled any
more and still been a good parent--and I usually have the energy of 3 people
and superb organizational skills!  The kids all breastfed over a year, by the
way, including the twins.  I was lucky enough to be able to work during my
entire pregnancy with no problems.

When I established my own practice and later hired a young partner, I knew
she was planning on having one additional child (she had her first child in
residency).  I wrote into her employment contract a 2 month paid maternity
leave, the provision to use all remaining vacation time as an add-on to that
leave if necessary, and the option to come back part-time with a proportional
part-pay scale if she wished.  She found this to be very useful when she did
have her son and consequently nursed him past his first birthday, whereas she
wound up weaning her daughter by 6 months.

I like to remind my male colleagues who gripe about covering for women on
maternity leave that maternity leave is usually a planned leave and that one
has 9 months warning that it's going to happen.  When they're expected to
cover for one of their male colleagues who has suffered a heart attack or
broken a leg skiing, they don't have the advance planning time.

We women have a different practice pattern than the guys.  We need time early
on for childbearing, breastfeeding, and parenting.  We can then generally
work full time once the kids are older/grown.  We have fewer heart attacks
than our male colleagues in our 50s and our life expectancies are longer, so
our "practice life" is equivalent to or longer than that of our male
colleagues.

As medicine continues to be more and more "female", I hope the attitudes will
change.  We go into medicine because we love it.  It IS hard to take time off
fully, but parttime work is possible and probably does help in balancing
family/work issues.  The more women physicians ask for reasonable
accomodation for childbirth/breastfeeding/parenting, the quicker things will
change.

The more women physicians are successful at breastfeeding, the more
physician-allies and physician-advocates the lactation community will have,
the fewer mismangement-of-lactation-by-physician stories there will be, and
the more breastfeeding will be seen as important and normal by the medical
community.

Women physicians DO need SUPPORT, not condemnation.  Dealing with the medical
establishment is not easy.

Linda L Shaw MD FAAP

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