“Childless Pediatrician Seeks Career Change”
[This is a guest post]
“I’ve been practicing pediatrics for about 17 years. Now approaching 50, and childless, I find it harder and harder every day to remain in pediatrics. Emotionally it has become increasingly difficult for me to see newborn infants and to counsel first-time parents. Nursery rounds send me into a tailspin. In the primary care setting, when giving anticipatory guidance, many parents react with astonishment to learn I am a pediatrician with no children of my own. My ‘expertise’ is suddenly questioned.
I always wanted to have children, whether biological or adopted. In my childbearing years, I had no spouse and I chose not to be a single parent. I did not meet my fiance until age 46.
I have contemplated leaving medicine entirely. If I so much as attempt to discuss this with anyone, the typical response is: “Are you crazy? You’re a DOCTOR. The top of the food chain! All the years of education and training would be wasted. How could you throw away your career?”
Frankly, if I do hang up the stethoscope, I have no idea what I would do next. I do know that I’m tired of trying to practice good medicine in a typical 15-minute primary care visit, I’m tired of the intrusions of being on-call, and the “mommy calls” are throwing me over the edge. I’ve had a good, solid, career until now. For me, leaving medicine is now a matter of self-preservation.
Where is the lifeline? Where do I turn? I’m interested in connecting with other women who have re-invented their lives after medicine.
Thanks for listening.”
