I’m MS2 and am working toward a neurosurgery residency spot. My wife is concerned about what it will be like for her when we hopefully have kids one day, and our “ideal” age is toward the end of Med school/beginning of residency
Am I just naive in thinking it’s doable? Are there any advice you have?
I’ve asked residents about this at my home program but I kind of feel like I may get a more candid reply anonymously.
I think some programs are more family friendly than others, but speaking from experience it’s definitely doable (finishing residency this year, had my first kid of 3 intern year). You’re wife will certainly have to calibrate her expectations a bit as at least during junior residency you may not be getting home before 6-7 much. You just need to make the time you have count. Try to focus on larger programs that are not spread over multiple hospitals, that way the in house call is less frequent.
Definitely doable but it would be wise to set expectations early. Done correctly any specialty and any hospital is going to keep you away from your family for long periods of time - but for good reason because this is only time in your career to build your foundation as a clinician. Plenty of residents do it at all stages of training, and in my experience being on the interview trail, nearly every single program was supportive. Is your wife stay at home, will also be a resident, etc? Regardless of your situation, if you have support in the form of grandparents or other family members, take advantage of whatever help you can get
Nuts. Unless u at Vermont.
Would love to hear advice for women having children in residency and how “doable” each time point is.
My program has a woman who had a baby during residency. It went fine for her. My friend in another program had hers during residency and also went fine for her. Both have family support.
women can have babies in residency. works best if 1) supportive program 2) someone has already done it before (many programs never had a pregnant resident yet and dont have simple policies such as breast feeding breaks while operating etc.) also some women choose to not be on IR or do tons of spine when pregnant due to the high radiation exposure and those allowances should be accomodated. Being the first in a program is hard. Most programs have yet to have had a pregnant resident and sometimes thats because of the culture 3) family and financial support (you need someone to care for your child, family member or pay a full time nanny, the hours arent conducive to using traditional day cares). Neurosurgery has lots of time that can be spent for research so unlike other specialties, unlikely you will have to extend your training if take parental leave. Some women have had more than one child in residency (exceedingly rare but has happened). From the stats, its obviously more difficult for women to have children than men in residency but it's better now than 10 yrs ago as programs are more supportive.
