Obstetrics and Gynecology

Hard to believe I am back here posting so soon!  My tour of OB/Gyn has nearly come and gone.  I spent the past 6 weeks at a busy hospital in northern Virginia (NoVA to us Virginians) just outside of Washington DC.  They sent a group of us up here because our home campus has a lower volume of obstetrics and I joined in thinking I would like to get good exposure to OB (Family docs, as it turns out, can still practice obstetrics if they choose, especially in the wild West!).

My first three weeks were spent on the busy Labor and Delivery service.  A classmate and I alternated between L&D shifts and days watching C-sections.  So. many. C-sections.  But aside from that, I had a really good time on L&D.  I would see new patients in triage; mostly ladies having contractions or leaking fluid who wanted to see if they were in labor.  I became quite adept at doing quick sonograms, reading the fetal monitor tracings, and botching my way through a patient history in Spanish.  The rest of the time was spent checking on the laboring patients, helping the residents, and most importantly pushing with the patients when it came time.  I was surprised at how much I enjoyed coaching the ladies and monitoring their progress.  I got to help with several deliveries where the resident would place their hands over mine while delivering the baby, but several times I got pushed out of the way due to complications like the baby's shoulder getting stuck or if they baby wasn't tolerating delivery.  Med student gold on L&D is a multip (a lady who has had at least one prior vaginal delivery) since the delivery tends to go quicker and smoother.  My opportunity finally came towards the end of my three weeks and I was allowed to deliver a baby all by myself.  The resident was behind me the whole time making sure I knew what I was doing (or didn't do anything stupid for that matter), but she let me run the show and everything went perfectly.  Such endorphin rushes have never been known!

The next two weeks I was on the urogynecology service, which involves pelvic organ prolapse repairs and pelvic slings for stress urinary incontinence.  I was mortified by many of the procedures I saw and won't go into too much detail here.  Suffice it to say, I no longer fancy a career involving surgery.  I don't know why I was drawn to it early in the year!

There were certainly days on OB when I thought I could see myself enjoying this field as a career.  I probably would.  But I think the work-life balance would be much harder to attain and I would miss the variety of patients in primary care.  If there is a future for me in OB, I guess the door is not completely closed with family medicine.  We shall see!