'...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
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'...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
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After running to yet another emergency in the last few minutes of my busy week of nights, morning sickness got the better of me and I asked if one of the day team could come and take over. They don't
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Forums » Off duty » Medical mums » '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 28/10/2011 9:30 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 3
First: 28/10/2011 Last: 14/5/2013 |
Well, the way to get adequate support when pregnant is to formally declare it to your line manager and OH then OH will have to ask your supervisor to make a work/risk assessment and support you as needed. You will get then get formal support and this can be as early as you want and no later than 25 weeks, I think (from memory). I had to announce my pregnancy to my supervisor at 7 weeks when I was an SpR as I had medical complications which means that my consultant knew it before my own family! With lighter duties, I worked until 34 weeks then took 3 weeks annual leave before the birth and I had 1 week off sick twice in the whole period. I have also worked alongside an obstetric SpR who was so heavily pregnant that she could hardly reach across when doing c-sections. I think that she was doing on calls until quite late in her pregnancy too as she was fine. Every pregnancy is different.
To be honest, if you are struggling, either you work with lighter duties or you have to go off sick then your unsupportive unsympathetic colleagues will be left with a full gap. I have seen nurses allocated admin duties during pregnancy and working quite well, but doctors rarely get their work adapted and this can be a challenge for them and for their colleagues as you are then expected to do your norml workload. In a way, if you are off sick, the situation is clearer for everybody than if you fade half way through your duties. Some women are well when pregnant and work to the full right to the birth and others are very sick. A lot have a bit of both at various stages of pregnancy. If you are not well, then make it clear and go through the formal channel to get help and rights (reduced work, adapted work or go off sick) so that people know what to expect. There are a lot of women in the NHS and many get pregnant during their career, why should expectations on female doctors be different from other female staff? |
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 29/10/2011 1:17 AM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 68
First: 29/8/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
I'd be tempted to reply, "Since when is being a registrar a recognised form of contraception?" I recall an (only just) spoof job description that one of my future colleagues put together, in which one of the essential criteria was occluded Fallopian tubes. He turned out to be a very supportive colleague. It's also very easy to get sense of humour failure when you're pregnant. However, fortunately, these days, people are much more tolerant of pregnancy in post than they were 20-25 years ago, when a colleague of mine failed to get her '1year with an option for a second year' registrar contract renewed for the second year because she was honest enough to tell people she was pregnant, and as a result, got no maternity pay at all. I can also see the other side of the coin, having had a registrar appointed by regional appointments committee allocated to us at 30 weeks gestation and then proceed to take the next 1 year 10 weeks as maternity leave, come back for 2 months then go off on her second lot of maternity leave. It used to be easy to get locums, LAS or LAT, but no longer, and that is really hard on the others in the rota. However, it really takes the biscuit when a male consultant, who had had many months off with a slipped disc, felt himself entitled to rail against female colleagues taking maternity leave. The NHS employs a lot of young women, including an increasing number of women doctors. It should not come as a surprise if a proportion of them get pregnant, and staffing levels need to reflect this bit of biology. |
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 29/10/2011 11:52 PM BST
on bmj.com
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Posts: 1
First: 29/10/2011 Last: 29/10/2011 |
Not all practices who employ Doctors in the NHS get reimbursement for those who become pregnant. Perhaps this is why there is a negative view by some senior partners to registrars/retainers becoming pregnant early in their posts. |
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 30/10/2011 1:37 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 25
First: 19/3/2010 Last: 30/6/2012 |
What a load of tripe. First off congratulations on your pregnancy, I wish you all the best. Second, I would ensure that you ask very clearly and in a firm manner, in front of others " Is there an issue with my being pregnant?" the next time someone attempts to make it an issue. Embarassment can concentrate the mind wonderfully. If that does not have the desired effect, make sure you stand your ground firmly and politely. In today's climate noone wants to attract attention as the misogynist who was nasty to a pregnant woman, even if they give off an air of nonchalance; add to this the unspoken fear of a complaint along the lines of discrimination etc and people will generally behave. It your right as a woman to get pregnant at the time of your choosing, and just because you made the same mistake we all did i.e. choosing to become a doctor, does not nullify that. For the record I would gladly make the same mistake again.
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 31/10/2011 6:41 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 11
First: 19/3/2010 Last: 17/6/2012 |
Agree with most of the sentiments here - it seems rediculous that there should be such an attitude about pregnancy. We are supposed to be living in the 21st century. Women are 'allowed' to get pregnant - we should just get on with it, to be honest. Keep well, Martin |
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 7/11/2011 9:16 AM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 33
First: 28/7/2011 Last: 15/2/2013 |
It looks like you've had some very helpful advice to this question in this forum and it's a real pity that negative attitudes still exist. I'd say that there are two approaches you can take. You could take the more informal route, by having a quiet word with a senior colleague, for example the clinical director (if it's one and the same person)? They would likely advise your senior on how a comment like this may be construed amongst female colleagues. It may not change the negative attitude but it should encourage the doctor to keep their thoughts to themselves. Just to point out, if you are a member of the BMA, you can discuss in confidence, taking a more formal approach to this situation with one of our BMA advisors on 0300 123 1233. I really hope this helps and all the very best for the remainder of your pregnancy. |
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 9/11/2011 7:58 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 13
First: 22/3/2011 Last: 23/11/2011 |
Hi Zac, I too have recently had a miserable time in early pregnancy as a registrar (some of us actually try to avoid getting pregnant as soon as we take up consultant posts John, but rotas being what they are at the moment and with a shortage of SPRs around there really is no good time to get pregnant). My sickness got worse and worse and I ended up admitted to hospital with hyperemesis and 4+ ketones at 13 weeks. I'd still been going in to work but on a couple of occasions had to go home again as couldn't get out of the doctors office for vomiting. I told the rotamaster and had a pregnancy risk assessment and saw occupational health at 10 weeks. They made an airy fairy recommendation that I receive "extra support" while on-call and split my 7 nights (which I had already arranged to do). I tried to swap all my on-calls to the 2nd trimester when I realised the sickness was getting bad but still had a couple left at 12 weeks (when I was told my sickness should be "better" anyway). They put them out for locum as couldn't see a way of providing any extra support, but the locum didn't show up for one and I ended up doing it and having to have IM cyclizine at work for intractable vomiting. I really find that I can work provided that I eat every 3 hours religiously - not easy to do on a medical reg on-call. Even whilst in hospital with hyperemesis I was being texted by my consultant asking when I was returning as the other (male) registrar had called in sick after returning from his annual leave with D&V (obviously a "proper" illness!). I returned to work the day after being discharged from hospital utterly exhausted after having not slept as an in-patient as I was next to a demented elderly lady who shouted all night. I managed to see a few patients in the morning but said I had to go home in the afternoon which was met with mystified looks. I have had to endure endless retorts of "well it should be better by now" and if I so much as allow any food to pass my lips then I'm clearly completely well and must be fabricating the whole thing. The only saving grace has been the truly lovely nurses (female and male) and pharmacists who have been incredibly sympathetic and on occasion sent me home as it was clear (to them at least) that I was unable to work. I perhaps should have got myself signed off for a couple of weeks by the GP but I just felt too guilty. I really really sympathise. Despite all the above I haven't actually had to deal with any nastiness (which I think would have upset me beyond belief). In some ways the physical vomiting has helped even though I find the endless nausea just as difficult to deal with - people can't argue as easily that someone vomiting in front of them is able to keep working. I've always been perfectly well and have found the whole experience utterly wretched as I've never felt so ill in all my life! Anyway the important thing is to ensure that you go through the proper channels as others have said. The rotamaster at my place has been very good really and they certainly haven't forced the other SPRs to take up the slack so at least I didn't have to feel extra guilty due to that. Good luck to you and congratulations on your pregnancy but don't make yourself ill even if they're being beastly. Also don't try and treat yourself - the weekend that I got really ill (before I ended up admitted on the monday) I hadn't been keeping anything down and in retrospect got increasingly ketotic all weekend. I thought about going to A&E on the sunday but kept down a glass of squash at some point in the day and thought that would be enough, even though I wasn't passing much urine and had vomited up everything else. Finally when I woke up at 3am vomiting I realised something was seriously amiss and went to A&E later that morning. I guess some people will always take the p**s which makes it more difficult for the rest of us. Sorry for the tirade, really hope it settles and your colleagues are more understanding!
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 10/11/2011 2:52 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 2047
First: 12/3/2010 Last: 21/5/2013 |
Oh, Gosh, Tolly, you used my name so I must reply. I really am a fully reconstructed male, and I hope you didn't think my post took the p*ss? Best wishes for the rest of it. John |
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Re: '...Registrars DO NOT get pregnant'
posted at 10/11/2011 8:27 PM GMT
on bmj.com
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Posts: 959
First: 15/7/2011 Last: 21/5/2013 |
Forgive me. I had no idea that conceiving a child was a criminal offence. Having a baby, becoming pregnant is part of our wonderful life. If the medical 'profession' find it a problem then that is their problem. Enjoy the joy of your child. If men/women/doctors find this to be weak or somehow pathetic - let them. You are a women, with the right to bear a child. Being a Doctor and a pregnant women are not exclusive either biologically or legally. Be proud. You are bearing a child, what a wonderful natural event (nothing medical about it).. You have legal rights to be a pregnant woman, a mother and a mother with a child. If men, i.e. other Doctors have a problem, tough. If their wife or girlfriend was in the same position they would fight for her rights (hopefully). Be proud to be a women, a Doctor, a pregnant women and a skilled professional. Any problem is theirs. Stand up for yourself. The Law is on your side. There is no problem legally in being an intelligent women with a career and also wanting/having to have a child. Forget medical responses to your situation. You are a woman preparing to have a baby. STAND UP FOR YOUR BABY AND YOU. I know it sounds easy, but do it. |
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