Mothers in Medicine

I was honored to be invited recently to be a regular contributor to the blog Mothers in Medicine, and I'm happy to announce my first post there, which went up today! (Sorry - it ended up being a little long...)

It turned out to be even more personal, in many ways, than some of the ones I write here, if you can believe that. But I guess I shouldn't have been surprised. Being a mom is a big choice; being a doctor is a big choice; and being a mom and a doctor at the same time is the kind of choice that brings a lot of complicated, interconnected feelings and thoughts to the fore...

And of course everyone has an opinion on all of that. Including us. :)

Here are just a few of my many favorite posts from the site:

Mothership - on the similarities between motherhood and internship

Cry - on the tears we shed as physicians

Mothering a Med Student and Babymaking in Residency - on how low the glass ceiling still is in medicine; these reminded me of why I wrote my posts "Medicine Hates Moms" and "Sweetie, Please Don't Go to Med School..."

Seriously, I Wanna Know - alternative career fantasies, which reminded me of my own career-fantasies post

Normal Incompetence - on how we can be humbled by mothering if the doctoring somehow doesn't already do that...

The Orchidometer - on puberty and its little lessons

Taking My Kids to Work - a post which made me wish, for a moment, that I had gone into pathology...!

A Comment from a Daughter - a very moving word of encouragement from the daughter of a physician to all of us who worry about the hurt our careers cause our families

(And for anyone who's wondering...yes, I enjoy the show Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman, even though it can be a little corny at times! I'm a sucker for corny (but wholesome) family fare (I watch 7th Heaven too), and I can't resist escapist "period" films/shows...like The Scarlet Pimpernel with Anthony Andrews...hmm, Jane Seymour's in that one too...)