This episode is with Dr. Laura Vater, a GI oncologist in Indiana who focuses her non-clinical time on humanism, writing and well-being

We talk about:
- Writing her first novel and working on getting it published
- Having her daughter in medical school
- Breastfeeding her daughter for 2.5 years while being an internal medicine resident
- The inspiration and motivation behind creating the life support community to support people in medicine
- Her family's decision to have her husband quit his job and be home full time
- Her presence on social media and what it means to her
- How she creates habits to incorporate wellbeing into her life
- Choosing the buckets of what matters to you
- Knowing when to say yes, no, or later
- Prioritizing time with her family in the summer 

Connect with Laura Vater:
- Life Support Community: patreon.com/DocLauraVater
- Instagram @doclauravater

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- [email protected]

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"I was super present with my kids when I was home. I didn't pull out phones, there weren't cell phones way back then that were so distracting. I would try not to be on the computer and making phone calls and things like that. I remember it that way of just being as present as possible. My kids still remember I was getting up at 6 in the morning and making them pancakes before they had to go to school and I had to go to work. So I really sacrificed sleep a lot because when they went to bed I would get the computer back out and do what needed to be done."

This episode is with Dr. Marci Snodgrass, who did medicine as a second career, worked as a full time family medicine physician in Davis, CA , and now works part-time for an FQHC.

- Going to medical school while in her 30s and her motivation behind doing so
- Being 8 months pregnant while interviewing for medical school
- Working as a family physician on call 24/7 for her OB patients
- Her current part-time role where she covers inboxes for people who are away, and how this setup allows her to travel along with her daughter's job to help care for her granddaughter
- What her one regret is
- Her reflections on how she raised two successful kids while being dedicated to her job
- Her adult kids' reflections on having a busy mom physician
- Words of wisdom for how to be an amazing mom and exceptional physician

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"After week 17 I think, I was worried about him. I knew that with my fibroids I would have pain. I was like it will be worse than what I had with my periods, but, well I can handle pain. I didn't factor in the emotional aspect of that. Like worrying about losing someone. So that to me was the hardest part."

This episode is with Dr. Mwanasha Merril, a hematology and oncology fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute

We talk about:
- Having fibroids and how that impacted her pregnancy
- The challenge of having significant pain in her pregnancy and how that impacted her personally as well as her fellowship training
- Bringing her baby to meet her family in Malawi
- What life looks like for her now as she finishes up fellowship with a 13 month old baby

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"Just before I turned 34 weeks I was doing my fellows clinic from my hospital room. I had a sign on the door like 'Do Not Disturb, I'm in clinic', and they were like we have to get your vitals at some point during this. So they came and took my blood pressure and it was like 170/100. The resident was pushing IV labetalol while I was precepting with my attending, and finally I was just like 'Ok, I think I'm done with clinic'. I had a few more patients left in the day and I was just like 'I'm done. I can't do this'."

This episode is with Dr. Gila Hoffman, a gastroenterologist in St. Louis who specializes in inflammatory bowel disease.

We talk about:
- Finding out she was having twins
- Doing telehealth fellows clinic from her hospital bed
- Having a miscarriage in residency
- Missing out on the beginning of GI fellowship on maternity leave and having to catch up
- The differences between having a baby as a fellow vs an attending

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"Within the span of an hour and a half our lives had gone from I'll be back in 90 minutes to go in and do my surgeries and move on, to we're having a girl let's celebrate, and then we're holding hands just with our hearts in our throat"

This episode is with Dr. Liliana Camison, a plastic surgeon and craniofacial surgery fellow at NYU

We talk about:
- Late pregnancy loss and deciding on termination
- Having her rainbow baby
- Fellowhsip interviews with an 8 week old baby and her mom in tow
- She and her husband making the decision to do a year apart so that she could do fellowship
- Living in NYC with her parents and her baby while her husband lives in Pittsburgh
and so much more!

Follow Liliana:
-instagram @lilianacamison

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- [email protected]

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"Studying burnout has showed us that having control over your job, over your work life, is such an important component of being satisified, of not being burned out, that it makes me sad for women like you and women now giving birth and trying to find balance, in particular in primary care. I think there are just more and more barriers to it unfortunately."

This episode is with Dr. Gila Kriegel, a primary care doctor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

We talk about:
- Part-time work
- The underground mother's club
- Having a spouse in medicine
- Having twins
and so much more!

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"I think I put that pressure on myself kind of to begin with that I just wanted to prove to everyone that I could be a pregnant resident and still function like a normal non-pregnant resident... I was taking primary call every third day up until 36 weeks so that was definitely challening as time went on. Like doing reductions with a big pregnant belly is not the easiest thing in the world. And everyone in the room is like "you're going to reduce my hip?" And you're like "Yes, I am going to reduce your hip".

This episode is with Dr. Eileen Colliton, an orthopedic surgeon completing her hand fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

We talk about:
- Not wanting to have kids and changing her mind
- Having a 5 week maternity leave as an OBGYN chief resident
- Parenting through the pandemic with a husband who is also a physician
- Choosing to go part-time
and so much more!

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"I had a lot of ambivalence around being a mother and I think looking back on why it was all justified, and part of it is that particularly as working women we are expecetd to work as though we don't have children and parent as though we don't have jobs, and I just felt like I don't know if i want to do this. I dont know if i can be the type of mom I want to be but also be the type of physician I want to be and I still have those doubts in my mind"

This episode is with Dr. Huma Farid, an OBGYN at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

We talk about:
- Not wanting to have kids and changing her mind
- Having a 5 week maternity leave as an OBGYN chief resident
- Parenting through the pandemic with a husband who is also a physician
- Choosing to go part-time
and so much more!

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Contact:
- [email protected]

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"I remember so distinctly we were in Rwanda, I came back from a run, and my husband was like sitting on the chair looking shell shocked, and he said 'uhh you need to read this email'. And it was an email that said 159 children have been released from The Congo and yours is one of them. Please come get him"

This episode's conversation is with Dr. Beth Riviello, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

We talk about:
- The decision to adopt
- International and domestic adoption experiences
- How different her two adoptions were
- Having a career in globale health
- The moment she met her sons and felt like their mom
- The ongoing bonding process
- Advocating for fair leave for adoptive and non-birth parents
- Having a quarterly check-in with herself
- Making time to pray and run
And so much more!

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Contact:
- [email protected]

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"Our lives are different than men in medicine in so many ways, and it has to do with being female and all of the reproductive burden that is put on us because of that."

We talk about:
- Having a baby as the only female physician in a private practice
- Feeling ostracized
- The challenges of treating pregnant women while pregnant
- Her husband choosing to stay home to raise the kids
- Having adult children go through illness

Follow Moms of Medicine:
- Twitter
- Instagram

Contact:
- [email protected]

Follow Ali:
- Twitter 

Support the show