The Cost of Becoming Both: Pregnancy, Pediatric Residency, and Parenthood

In this episode, host Amanda Quijano interviews Erica, now a first-year outpatient general pediatrician and mom of two under two, about having her first child during pediatrics residency and the physical and emotional toll of the training environment.

They talk about the lack of guidance around pregnancy accommodations, leave and scheduling, including working 24-hour shifts late in pregnancy. They discuss the guilt involved in asking for any adjustments and the cultural pressure to work through pregnancy complications. She recounts her experience with preeclampsia, an emergency C-section, her son's resuscitation and NICU stay, and how this affected her recovery and leave - including having to extend her training.

They also touch on how these experiences - even just that of being a resident and new parent - lead to feelings of isolation from her peers, separation from her family, strain on her marriage, and feeling misunderstood by co-residents... and how this first experience of pregnancy during training still had ramifications on her second pregnancy during her attendinghood.