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Pregnant before PA School


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I have been accepted to a PA program which will begin this June. I have also just found out that I am pregnant. Has anyone been through PA school with someone who had a baby during the didactic year? I know how intense that year is. I don't want to set myself up for failure nor lose my opportunity to go through the program.

 

If anyone has any insight or advice, I would be very thankful.

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Hi!

I was pregnant nearly the entirety of my on-campus didactic year.  (Oct-late June)

Some thoughts:

  • you can't know how the pregnancy will go.  I didn't have any real issues, but I was flat-out exhausted the first trimester.  As a result, I ended up missing more days than I would have liked.  
  • I was up front with my program and told them immediately and they all seemed pretty supportive.  They told me I could do things several ways.  I could delay my clinicals if necessary and graduate later, or continue as scheduled.  I delivered just before the summer quarter ended and the rest was online for everyone anyway, so I didn't miss anything.  I'm on schedule to graduate with my classmates.  (Yay!)  Talk with your program to see what the options are.  Will they let you defer for a year?  Do you even want to defer?  Also, remember, you could deliver much before or after your due date.  What is your program's plan for you if you have to leave the quarter/semester early?
  • you need the strongest support system you can find.  I am supremely lucky in that my husband elected to stay home with baby when we moved back home for the clinical year.  My mother also moved in with us, so I know my kiddo is well-cared for.  I rarely have to get up in the middle of the night and they allow me study time.  This is huge.  If you are going to be the one up all night and taking care of baby during the evenings and weekends, you really need to consider if you'll have anything left over for school. 
  • you also need a decent plan and some back ups.  I wanted to EBF for the first year.  Well, I was in clinicals after ~3 months in another city so that didn't work out.  So I pumped, which worked out well for a while.  Though my preceptor had originally been supportive, I could tell she wasn't really thrilled with me having to be gone every 2-4 hours.  
  • lastly, and this might seem a little superficial, but I wasn't able to do as many activities with my classmates as I might have done non-pregnant.  Favorite class activities included drinking and hiking, neither of which I wanted to do.  My classmates are all very nice people and were supportive, but I do feel that I missed out on some bonding.  

That's all I can think of for now.  Please let me know if you have any specific question I might be able to address.  

 

Congrats!  I don't know if this is your first child or not, but babies are pretty special.  While I definitely wish the timing would have been better, I love my lil munchkin so much.  

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  • 7 months later...

Ask to defer for a year. Someone on the waiting list will be very happy and you can have your pregnancy stress free and have a few months to spend with your newborn. It's one year… in the grand scheme of things thats nothing. Good luck

Ditto.  Request a deferral.  Give yourself a solid start into the profession with energy and focus; your growing fetus deserves a healthier incubation than the stress hormone hurricane that is the didactic year.  Not to mention, most pregnant women tell me how difficult it can be to concentrate and retain information while pregnant--especially third trimester.  My wife was pregnant in grad school and hardly remembers her spring semester before the baby was born in May! 

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