Mommy Postdoc, PhD

Courtesy of Heather Patisaul Only two months into my first postdoctoral position, I did something a good postdoc is not supposed to do: I got pregnant. I was thrilled to be expanding my young family, but I couldn't help but be apprehensive about how the news would go over among my science colleagues. As many of us already know, it is generally believed that science and family are not easily mixed; one usually suffers for the sake of the other. This wasn't my first foray into the forbidden. I was pregnant with my first child while I was still a graduate student, but thanks to support from my mentors and family, I managed to graduate in just over five years. I had five published papers under my belt, despite the fact that I had stayed home with my new baby for about four months and never really returned full time. I was about to test the tolerance of my colleagues all over again, and I was again planning to spend at least four months at home to care for my new daughter. I have never doubted that my family must and would always come first. But science is not only my profession, it's also my passion. I didn't want ten years of college training and my growing resume to fall by the wayside as I again became inundated with diapers, bottles, and midnight feedings. For me, the question was never if a scientist could also be a mother, but how. I would not let anybody tell me it was impossible. I knew that if I were going to stay competitive, I would have to stay productive, even if I wasn't physically in the lab. So, from the moment I found out that I was pregnant I started planning. I managed to wrap up three different experiments, all with publishable results, in the nine months that my belly expanded. I bought a fast computer and loaded it up with all the necessary software, and after the arrival of my daughter, I began typing up the results of my three studies, from home. My living room contained the cluttered evidence of my duality: rattles, pacifiers, and baby blankets competed for space with dozens of scientific articles, lab notebooks, and my laptop. When my daughter slept, I typed, and when she was awake I read Medline abstracts to her in that wonderfully sweet, high-pitched voice that always makes her smile. It's been a year since my daughter was born, and although I have resumed a more normal work schedule, I still leave early every day to pick up my children from daycare. I worry every day about how my decision to expand my family has and will affect my career. I know that I won't succeed without the patience and support of my mentors, and the babysitting services of my extended family. It's difficult to balance it all, but to me it's worth the effort. Heather Patisaul (hbeaupr@emory.edu) is a postdoc at Emory University, Atlanta. function sendData() { document.frm.pathName.value = location.pathname; result = false if (document.frm.score[0].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[1].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[2].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[3].checked) result = true; if (document.frm.score[4].checked) result = true; if (!result) alert("Please select") return result; } .myradio{background-color : #94bee5} Please indicate on a 1 - 5 scale how strongly you would recommend this article to your colleagues? Not recommended 1 2 3 4 5 Highly recommended Please register your vote

Mommy Postdoc, PhD

Interested in reading more?

Become a Member of