The Student Room Group

medicine degree & children possible?

Hi guys,

I've decided late in life that I want to go to medical school (2020 entry hopefully) I'm 30 and happily married and we both want children at some point in the not so distant future. I have my mother not too far away & I know she would help out a few days a week & my husband is able to work from home one day a week. But that really is the only family support I'd have.

my questions are:

is it possible to succeed in medical school whilst pregnant & having a child? if so which year of study would be the best year to try and conceive in terms of work load etc?

If not medical school, is it better to wait until I've graduated? or not at all?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated :smile:
Reply 1
I guess the question is when is the best time for you?!

It’s a hard one. I would really like to hear other peoples perspective on this as this is a question I feel I’m coming in contact with in a few years time.
Reply 2
I’m in the same position as you! Im 24 and I’m hoping for a 2021 entry to HYMS and I already have a 3 year old and would really like to have another before I finish med school as that would mean a 10 year age gap! From what I’ve read people suggest that after your first year is a good time, I’m planning to be due to deliver in the summer after my first year and then take my second year off if that makes sense 🙂
Reply 3
I knew a girl who worked really hard to get into Medicine. She did a degree in Biomedical Science, worked for a few years then did a Foundation Year and started medical school in her late 20’s. She got pregnant in 2nd year and left at the end of the year to have her first baby. But she ended up having a second child too and never returned to finish her degree.

My point being that your priorities can easily change when you bring children into the picture. If you’re planning to have a child during medical school, you’ll have to work much harder to stay focused on keeping up with the workload and passing your exams as well as spending time with your child. You seem to have a good support network but will it be enough to help you manage the work?

Personally I would suggest you wait until you graduate before having children. Medicine is a full time commitment and your mind needs to be on the work pretty much permanently all throughout the course. There’s no room for distractions. At least when you graduate and start work, the opportunities for working part time are there (not possible to do PT study for medical school). But if you’re really determined to have children sooner rather than later, within the first 2 years is best, i.e. when you have uni-based teaching 9 to 5 rather than travelling around everywhere for clinical attachments.
Reply 4
Also, I know it’s not the same but I got pregnant in the first year of my psychology degree, took a year and came back. I aced it, I’ve got continual 2:1’s/firsts all the way through and was in the top 15% of my class to go onto specialised modules in my final year (they only offer 35 places on these particular modules). Plus doing 3 lots of volunteer work. It’s hard work but 100% do able I’m sure it is with medicine too 🙂

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