{"id":3785,"date":"2017-09-11T15:27:31","date_gmt":"2017-09-11T20:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mindonmed.com\/?p=3785"},"modified":"2018-02-09T12:47:23","modified_gmt":"2018-02-09T17:47:23","slug":"why-i-chose-obgyn-obstetrics-portion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/2017\/09\/why-i-chose-obgyn-obstetrics-portion.html","title":{"rendered":"Why I Chose Ob\/Gyn – Obstetrics Portion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Cred: gnelyseo on Flickr Creative Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Day 1 of Medical School:<\/strong><\/p>\n

I’m showered, made-up, and well-slept. As a newly wed in a new city embarking on an exciting journey, I possess a palpable eagerness akin to the first day of Kindergarten. Although I am somewhat intimidated and terrified, my mind is focused and eager to get going with this adventure to becoming a doctor.<\/p>\n

I confidently write my specialties of choice on the welcome questionnaire.<\/em><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Pediatrics<\/strong>\u00a0or<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Emergency Medicine<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

     <\/p>\n

    Fast Forward 4 Years to Match Day:<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I’m nervous, lactating, and definitely not<\/strong> well-slept. As a new mom to twins in a familiar room holding an envelope encasing my future, I can’t help but feel nauseated. I open it to find relief in the contents and then see a large screen flash my “MS1 chosen specialties” alongside my\u00a0ERAS picture and actual Match results revealing a totally different future than I envisioned in chapter 1.<\/p>\n

    \"Match
    Match Day 2013<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

    It’s then I realize that only a very small minority of our class actually applied and matched into the specialty they came to medical school expecting to train for.<\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n

    So, how’d I end up here?<\/strong><\/p>\n

    Perhaps the most stressful decision we make as medical students is what specialty we will go into. I had distinct plans to avoid any surgical specialty, specifically including Ob\/Gyn<\/em>, mostly out of fear that surgical specialties were not compatible with having a family. I also had an underlying belief\/worry that I did not possess\u00a0the required moral fortitude or tactile skills to operate and lead in high-stress environments.<\/p>\n

    In fact, even after rotating through these specialties and realizing I enjoyed being in the OR, I still spent the next several months in a mental debate with myself creating reasons I should choose\u00a0a non-surgical specialty I liked instead of this surgical one I loved. At the end of it all I simply could not justify choosing something I was less apt in and enjoyed less based purely on what turned out to be misguided fears…especially after all the time, money, and effort I had put in to simply being able to make that choice.<\/p>\n

    Ob\/Gyn had several drawing factors for me, some of them I’ve written about\u00a0in the past. One of those, what I call the “Happiness Factor”<\/strong> was particularly appealing. Despite crazier hours and more intense training than some of the “lifestyle” and “cognitive” specialities, I was happier on my Ob\/Gyn rotation than any other. Additionally, I felt like the Obstetrics aspect was uniquely happy. Where else in a hospital are people EXCITED to get admitted?<\/p>\n

    That being said\u2026<\/p>\n

    While Obstetrics actually is 90% YAY-BABY-DAY(!)<\/strong>, one must not forget that there remains a less-discussed, ever-present\u00a010% which is purely heart-wrenching. This field is usually good, but when it’s not good\u2026it’s downright terrible.<\/p>\n

      \n
    • Delivering babies you know will never cry…holding your breath for the most deafening silence you’ll ever know.<\/li>\n
    • Cradling babies born living, but far too early for modern medicine to help.<\/li>\n
    • Telling a mom there is no\u00a0heartbeat.<\/li>\n
    • Taking care of parents who know their baby will be born with life-threatening, limiting, or lethal\u00a0anomalies.<\/li>\n
    • Hugging grieving parents\u00a0after an unexpected newborn death.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      These are all things I’ve done, most of them more than once. These are tragic circumstances which\u00a0come with the territory. At one point in my life I thought this was made okay by the fact that\u00a0they are bookended by lots of “He’s soooo cute”\u00a0squeals to a lovely soundtrack of crying newborns. I’ve come to realize, this 10% is actually a sacred part of my job. Knowing I have the opportunity to guide these families through scary, uncharted waters and give them the tools to find a glimmer of happiness in the unthinkable is what makes this worth it. These women and their families deserve attentive, compassionate, focused care on their darkest day.<\/p>\n

      Taking care of women through their pregnancy, happy or sad, is not just a\u00a0job, it’s a privilege. I am welcomed into the most exciting, scary, heartbreaking, wonderful, confusing and intimate of times. The physical, emotional, and social aspects of pregnancy, labor, & delivery make the obstetric part\u00a0of my job\u00a0continually exciting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      Maybe the new just hasn’t worn off yet, but even after hundreds, if not thousands, of birth days it still feels like a privilege every\u00a0time I set foot in a delivery room.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Day 1 of Medical School: I’m showered, made-up, and well-slept. As a newly wed in a new city embarking on an exciting journey, I possess a palpable eagerness akin to the first day of Kindergarten. Although I am somewhat intimidated and terrified, my mind is focused and eager to get going with this adventure […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3786,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[38,132],"tags":[549,553,556,559,560,557,555,554,527,550,539,206,548,552,551,561,547,562,517,558],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/sacredob-e1505161000668.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3785"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3798,"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3785\/revisions\/3798"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3786"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3785"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3785"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/old.mindonmed.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3785"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}