Further to my g'day recently...

I am mother of three kids (6 yo - 18 mo). I work part time (3-4 supposed
half days/week, in reality 0830-1430 to as late as 1600, meant to finish
at 1230! and no most (vast majority) of that overtime is not paid) as a
family physician in a country town in Australia. My husband and I share
homeschooling of our 6 year old daughter. He works part time trying to
get a shed ready to move into on our small farm when I am home . I am
sitting the IBCLC exam this year.

I think whether you can manage work and having babies with you
depends on many variables related to both the person, the
requirements of work, and the baby. I would never have managed to
take my kids to general practice work, but they routinely came with me
to meetings, educational and others.

 A friend of mine (also a doctor) working way more hours than me took
each of hers to work until they  were crawling. (She had trouble free
breastfeeding.)

I found with a baby with me I could not concentrate on work and I could
not concentrate on feeding. It was always a struggle for me feeding
with poor attachment with first from ?abnormal suckling/whatever and
resultant recurrent thrush and mastitis for all 3.

Another problem i have found is through having 3 extended maternity
leaves for feeling lousy in pregnancy (I feel like i am going to vomit or
faint for the whole pregnancy) and post partum recovery with recurrent
mastitis and    then working very part-time hours that i don't "feel" very
professional any more.

I have not had time to read journals, to keep up with new
drugs/treatments. I would not have it any other way as far as taking the
time off or  having kids or working part time, but I look at the other
childless colleagues and feel less sure of myself etc except when it
comes to understanding and empathy with parents!

In the suburbs of Melbourne where I worked previously other (male full-
time) doctors called the likes of me "hobby doctors" (not to our faces). I
would say that I have my priorities right for my family/life, do they?
Being "professional" seems to imply "separate from family". The sooner
a breastfed baby (especially, but also older kids) is seen as an
inseparable part of the mother-infant dyad the better for our society. In
my humble opinion!

As far as volunteering goes, I do lots of work that I am not paid for.
That just  seems to go with the nature of general practice. What strikes
me about this issue is whether you are expected to work for no pay or
whether you want to finish something you are doing beyond your hours
of work for whatever reason. In other words, how "voluntary" it really is.

Alison
MBBS, FRACGP, DipRACOG
ABA Counsellor
mother of 3 darlings

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