I answer some listener questions in this episode including:

- My journey through med school, residenc, fellowship into being an attending
- The specifics of my current job
- What it's like training and raising a family in Boston
- If I ever feel guilty about choosing medicine as a mom
- Expectations vs reality - what I hold onto and what I let go
- Best time to have a baby
- Using a financial planner
- Self doubt as a new attending
- Dealing with childhood illness
- Balancing things with spouse
- Setting boundaries with work
and more!

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"I had Ethan when I was a fourth year resident and then my younger son, Lane, I had as a first year attending. Both of them were NICU babies. They were both preterm delivieries, both had quite a number of complications and even more prominent a memory than the experience in the ICU was that desire to avoid being a burden to your colleagues."

This episode is with Dr. Erika Rangel, who is a trauma and critical care surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.

We discuss:
- Parental leave policies and how these effect birth and non-birth parents
- Health outcomes for pregnant surgical trainees
- Culture change
- Her own story with having a child in training and another child later through IVF, both of whom spent time in the NICU

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"For some reason we were taught that if we were good at our jobs we could do it and never be affected by it. I don't know who told us that but that was stupid."

This episode is with Dr. Jessi Gold, who is a psychiatrist at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and the Chief Wellness Office for the University of Tennesse System.

In this episode we talk about:
- Her memoir "How Do You Feel"
- The decision to share her story
- Changing the culture in medicine to allow us to be humans who have emotions, and how we will all be better for it
- How to make it through your day and also make time to feel your feelings
- Her thoughts on wellness culture and "hacks" and her personal experience trying some of these
- And so much more!


 Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected]

Connect with Dr. Jessi Gold:
- https://www.drjessigold.com/
- Buy her book! You can find it on Amazon, BAM! books a million, Book Shop, Barnes & Noble
- Instagram @drjessigold

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"I am proud of myself for everything I've overcome but I also think it's ridiculous some of the sutff I had to go through to get here and I think some of it made me a better person and I think some of it was just bad to go through."


This episode is with Dr. Cornelia Griggs, who is a pediatric surgeon at Massachusetts General Hospital.

In this episode we talk about:
- Her memoir "The Sky was Falling" about her time working in NYC during the pandemic
- Finding out her husband was sick shortly after they got married as surgical residents
- The decision to have kids in training
- Living with her kids away from her husband for a year while she finished fellowship (this just so happened to be when the pandemic hit)
- Her thoughts on the tension between training needing to be rigorous in order to become a surgeon but also understanding people are humans who will face challenges and need time to take care of themselves
- and so much more!

 Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected]

Connect with Cornelia:
- Instagram @dr.corneliagriggs
- Corneliagriggs.com
- Purchase her book "The Sky Was Falling"

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"Now in this day and age of electronic everything, people can message you all the time. So if you're not willing to say these are the times I'm willing to be available for work and these are the times I'm not, you could be working 24/7.

There's this paradigm of inbox zero but even when you get to inbox zero you turn off your computer, theres' something that's in there again. So inbox zero really only happens if you leave your job or all your patients die. So it's sort of just growing your tolerance - I'm not going to check things between this time and this time, I'm not going to look on the weekends, I'm not going to check on vacation. It's like, are you allowed to say that? It's like sacrelig, but I think that's an example of setting a boundary around your time - when you will and won't answer pages, when you will or wont take extra shifts, if you're willing to do unpaid work. You just really have to decide."

This episode is with Dr. Karen Leitner, who is a physician coach based in Massachusetts.

In this episode we talk about:
- Working full time vs part time
- Setting boundaries with the electronic medical record (i.e. how to not always be tending to your inbox)
- Taking care of patients in the age of open charts
- Mom guilt
- Burnout
- Mental health concerns
- Negotiating for yourself
- Transitioning out of clinical medicine

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected]

Connect with Karen:
- www.karenleitnermd.com
- Instagram @karenleitnermd

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"I've hit the point of burnout multiple times in my life. Most recently it was after I started my coaching business. So I was working full time as a primary care outaptient physician and I was coaching my clients on my admin half day and weekends. I realized that what was burning me out was medicine post-pandemic. I just couldn't do it anymore and it took me a while to recognize why I was feeling the way I was feeling. So I took some time to self-reflect. Actually a year ago in August I took 4 weeks off of unpaid leave becasue I was just fed up. I needed some space and some time to figure out how I am going to move forward in everything that I love. I love clinical medicine. I love building that relationship with my patients, but then there's all of the other BS. Here in the United States the system is broken - period. We can make small changes here and there but in the end I decided that being a full time physician and full time coach wasn't possible."

This episode is with Dr. Flora Sinha, who is a primary care physician, a physician coach, and a podcast host.

In this episode we talk about:
- Her experience with secondary infertility
- How/when she decided to stop fertility treatments
- Happiness with her current family size
- How to respond to invasive/inappropriate questions about your personal life, particularly your family size
- Her experience with burnout
- Taking 4 weeks of unpaid leave to figure out how she wanted to move forward
- Starting her coaching business
- Her podcast - The Beyond Podcast
- Her decision to share her life publicly on social media and why

 Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected]

Connect with Dr. Flora Sinha:
- Instagram @drflorasinha
- Instagram @the.beyondpodcast
- the beyond podcast on apple, spotify, and youtube

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"I wanted to maintain my running and then work was catching up and I think that's when it got kind of crazy in terms of you know I'm trying to do too much. And when you have too many balls in the air waiting until they hit the ground and a lot of problems with mariage, a lot of problems with kids, and a lot of problems at work. That was when I was like 'I need to figure out what to do here because I can't continue like this. It's time to prioritize. I don't want to look back and have my husband hate me, my kids hate me, I hate my life, my job.' That was kind of a big time that I needed to consider what to do."

This episode is with Dr. Lauren Puretz, who is a board certified OBGYN practicing gynecology in Colorado, an elite ultrarunner, a wife, and a mother to 2 children.

In this episode we talk about:
- How her relationhsip with exercise evolved in different phases of parenthood and her medical career
- Being married to another physician, who is a neurologist
- How and why she chose to give up obstetrics and focus on gynecology
- Finding the time to train for and race ultra distances while also working as an obgyn, being a wife, and being a mom
- Big changes at her prior job that led her to consider either leaving medicine altogether or opening her own practice
- The decision to start her own practice, and the logistics and challenges that went into this
- Her thoughts on "doing it all" (spoiler alert - you can't)

 Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected]

Connect with Lauren:
- Instagram  @Lauren1642

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"My brain was not in OB mode. Like anybody who is an obgyn, when you get admitted that sick at 26 weeks, knows you're really not going to go until 34 weeks but my brain wasn't processing that. So I reached out to both my program director and the chairman of our department in like panicked text messages. I didn't have it in me to call them. I had 1% battery on my phone. I was in triage. I was barely even admitted to the hospital. They had given me oral medication to get my blood pressure down before they even placed an IV and I had just texted my husband I had barely told anyone else and I was texting everyone at work."

This episode is with Dr. Shelley Dolitsky, who is a reproductive endocrinologist in Maryland.

In this episode we talk about:
- Developing preeclampsia only a couple of weeks into REI fellowship
- Her daughter spending 3 months in the NICU (she's doing great now!)
- How she decided when to go back after having her daughter, and then deciding to take more time off down the road
- The incredible support of her leadership at every step of the way
- Deciding on timing of a second pregnacy (with input from her work colleagues and her thoughts on this)
- Having to schedule an amniocentesis for the day she was to give her thesis presentation (spoiler, she didn't give her thesis, but not for the reasons you might think)
- Negotiating for her first job
- and so much more!

 Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected] 

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"I promise we will all do better if you lift up and empower other women, because guess what when the time comes and you need a favor they will then return it to you. We need to stop this you or me mentality and competition. I think women are pitted against each other more than men are and I'm like there is enough to go around, I promise."

This episode is with Dr. Tiffany Moon, an anesthesiologist in Dallas, Texas.

In this episode we talk about:
- Having twin girls as an attending
- Her decision to go back to work after 6 weeks of leave
- Her thoughts on distribution of work and time at home during the little kid years
- Starting a wine company with her husband
- Starting a candle company during the COVID pandemic, somewhat accidentally
- Writing a memoir, which comes out in Spring 2025
- Creating the LeadHer Summit to empower women

LeadHer Summit Nov 8-10, 2024:
- Click here to register
- Use code "MOM" for $300 off registration

Connect with Dr. Tiffany Moon @tiffanymoonmd:
- Instagram
- Tiktok
- X
- Youtube

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected] 

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"I feel like I was able to spend those years of fellowship really asking this question of how do I want this career to fit into my life. Before I never really
 understood what it was going to feel like to be a mom or to be a wife or what it was going to feel like to just want to be Rene and who I am and the rest of the things. For so long, understandably so, the main focus was how do I become the best doctor and that's what you need to get through medical school and residency to get the best training to be a good doctor but I started to realize that if I was only thinknig about my career and that was it and I wasn't giving ample priority to the rest of the things around it, then I would eventually hate my job for what it was taking away from the other parts."

This episode is with Dr. Renee Rodriguez Paro, a pediatric cardiologist in California.

In this episode we talk about:
- The decision to change your name
- Being married to a physician - the good and the bad!
- Starting a podcast with her husband called "Reconciling Medicine"
- Having a baby in pediatric residency and going back to work after 6 weeks
- Starting fellowship with a 6 month old baby and questioning if she should leave fellowship
- Considering surgery and ultimately deciding she wasn't sure want to be part of a two surgeon family and she loved clinic just as much if not more than the OR
- Shifting career priorities pre- and post-kids
- Making the decision to leave academic medicine
- Her view on part-time work for herself as well as globally for other physicians
- Becoming department chair
- Running marathons!

Connect with Renee:
- Instagram @drreneeparo

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- [email protected] 

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