Profile: Sethina Edwards, founder of MomMD.com, an international site for working medical mothers
TheLancetStudent.com was featured as a Spotlight Site on MomMD.com, founded by a mother and pre-medical hopeful looking for answers on how to balance her career and home life . So inappreciation for receiving the Spotlight Site distinction, this is TheLancetStudent.com’s spotlight on MomMD.com.
In 1999, Sethina Edwards had a career in marketing and was pregnant. After getting laid off from her job, she had the opportunity for the first time to decide what to do with her life. She considered a career in medicine as she attended prenatal doctor appointments. She thought that it would not be possible to commit to six years of medical school with a baby. That’s when she founded MomMD.com.
“I couldn’t find anything on the web about having a baby and medical school so I put this little site to get other people’s opinions.” Sethina recalls. The original goals of the site were simple: to provide a space to help moms find a balance between medicine and family. Since the beginning of the website, Sethina said, “It is interesting because it is the same issues no matter if you are working in US, UK or India.” Women want to know: “Can I have a child?” “When is the best time?” “What is the best specialty to go in to?”
There are currently 13,000 members on MomMD.com, based mostly in the United States with some members from India, UK, South America, and Mexico, and several attend overseas schools. A quarter are not mothers but are females in medicine and are wondering when and if they could fit have children into their career. Half of the users are female doctors and the other half are split between pre-medical and medical students.
The most popular features on the site are the forums. There is a forum called debates and issues with an ongoing global discussion about the differences in education and health services. Sethina admits, “I’ve longed to have a UK version but never seem to have the time to do it.”
The site is US-based because she started it when she was in the US with her husband. She wishes that she had the time to expand. She had included a forum, called International, proving the site is not only about the US nor just mothering. The site inlcudes job opportunities for female doctors that are family friendly with flexible options and articles on applying to medical school, and balancing family. The site has received a lot of media attention. It often receives requests for speakers so Sethina started a database of experts.
Sethina’s experience as a mom and medical student currently in Bristol, UK, has not been as bad as she thought. Balance is the most difficult aspect for her. She was given great advice when she started: break things down into smaller tasks. “You can get overwhelmed,” she said. “Organizing your life by breaking them into pieces makes the difference.” She said, “I tell myself, ‘If I get through just the first term, and then the second term, etc.”
So far she has managed quite well. However, her current problem is deciding where to do clinical placements. She said, “If the kids’ childcare finishes at 5:30pm and I’m an hour away then I can’t get back in time.” She finds that exam times are particularly hard because she has all the house responsibilities, like cooking dinner, plus studying for exams, which tend to fall during the kids’ holiday breaks. She said, “I have to study with the noise and when they are around.”
There are only four other mothers in her class of around 200 (over 60% are females) and, in her opinion, mothers tend to do exceptionally well: two are in the top bracket of the class. The UK average age (typically 18 years old) is much younger than the US (typically 24 years old). “When deciding on schools, there were only a handful of places that I could do the six year course and I had to decide on that rather than look for family friendly schools.”
MomMD.com is a great resource for all women in medicine, especially those with the added responsibility of being a mother. The resources are excellent and the forums are a great place to get different opinions on a variety of different questions pertaining to medicine and life.
Catherine Pastorius
(On attachment with TheLancetStudent)
Third year medical student
University of Minnesota
USA