2020 was a jarring year in which all of us saw our way of life completely changed by a pandemic. The difference was all the more pronounced for me because it was also the year that I had my first baby and my last year of training. To put things in perspective, I am in a very privileged position, in a two-hetero-cis-parent marriage, and have a supportive family and employer. My experience is not the standard.
Despite all the support systems I had in place, returning to work as a new mother was the hardest charge I have undertaken — a proclamation not easily made after having trained in medicine for close to 14 years, taken countless exams, and moved across the world away from my family to pursue residency in the United States.
The statisticsin the US show disastrously short maternity leave (1 in 4 women return to work in 2 weeks), overlooked paternity leave, and dismal rates of mothers returning to work. Despite being aware of these issues for years, they came acutely into focus when I was actually in the position of leaving my 3-week-old baby to go to clinic. At that juncture, I couldn’t believe that we are so matter-of-fact about what should be an indefensible situation.
