24. Rewind: Internship baby in the 1980s with Deborah Kwolek

Moms of Medicine

"The big bottom line, ok, this is the big bottom line - young moms and women in general we are so self critical and we are so down on ourselves, and I could practically cry just thinking about this because it's so unneeeded. We're as smart as the guys, we're as committed as they are, we probably work harder in certain ways. Women do a lot of unpaid work. And so we have no reason to feel bad about ourselves, but I know when I was a young mom, you're so insecure. What happens though, I think when you get around 35 or 40, you're just like "who cares what people think". You can't even worry about that. As long as you're comfortable, your partner, your conscience, your family, that's what matters."
In this episode Dr. Deborah Gomez Kwolek shares her experience with:
- Having a baby during her intern year in 1987 and how she barely survived that year
- Having to take time away from residency training when she had her 2 first kids
- Sharing a residency spot with another woman who had a baby in residency (she needed to heavily advocate for herself to make this happen)
- Going on to have 7 children
- Taking several years away from medicine midway through her career, and then coming back
- Supporting young moms now that she is more senior
Join the SGIM Women and Medicine Commission's workgroup on parenting
"Pregnancy and Residency- Overdue for Equity" published in NEJM March 11, 2023
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