Med school with a baby

Attending med school while raising a baby isn't easy. I'll try and bring a bit of pros and cons here to help anyone that is contemplating with the subject. It's funny how crazy things occur while life is happening. I started school six years ago and today I am married and a father to Emmanuelle - my beautiful daughter. If you had asked me then, if I would build a family during med school I would just laugh and regard you as naive, but guess what happened?

LIFE.

I met my wife during med school and we decided to take the leap and make our connection sacred, so we got married and since my wife took some time off school we both decided on having a baby. I was a little reluctant at the beginning because I was worried about the consequences; med school with a baby? will I have enough time to study? am I ready to be a father? and many other what ifs.

During the first few years in med school the curriculum is very demanding and when you get further down the line it seems as if more and more things are falling into place and you have more time on your hands, I don't really know if you really have more time or that you just get used to managing your time better and that makes all the difference. 

Emmanuelle was born in May and my life has never been the same.

At first the feeling was overwhelming, we had to get used to a whole different reality of long days and even longer nights together with the fact that we were in charge of a magnificent creature that is fully dependent on the two of us. I couldn't even think about school, we were both totally indulged in this new commitment.

During the next 11 months we learned how to divide our time, at first it was hard but with the help with my wife I could take a few hours off each day to study. 2-3 weeks before the exams, when I really needed time to cram, I would head out of the house (library or friends house) just to be able to concentrate on the topics I needed to go through before the test.

Positive points about going through med school with a baby:

• The joy and fulfillment that your baby gives you. 
• All is secondary to this great miracle (yes even the exams). 
• It helped me take into perspective the important points of life and really not go over my head for one more exam. 
• The feeling of coming home to a warm and welcoming house is much more fulfilling then returning to dorms. (not that I have anything against dorms everything has its own time in life I guess).
• I was surprised how there was a smaller financial burden then I first thought - at least for the first year, we got a lot of hand-me-downs and breast feeding is really cheep :)

Some negative points you should consider:    

• You need to be able to grab the hours you can and make the best out of them.
• Be ready to sleep less hours.
• If you are a planning to breast feed…well thats a different story all together. You can have a look here.
• It could be financially debilitating. Especially if you need to buy all new things and can't get by with second hand products.

In conclusion I think having a baby could be the best thing that ever happened to a med student but thats just me personal opinion. This post is longer then I planned but I think you get the point, if you have any questions about my personal experiences on going through med school with a baby just ask and I'll be glad to answer.

Emmanuelle 10 months