Moms of Medicine – Details, episodes & analysis

"I promise we will all do better if you lift up and empower other women, because guess what when the time comes and you need a favor they will then return it to you. We need to stop this you or me mentality and competition. I think women are pitted against each other more than men are and I'm like there is enough to go around, I promise."

This episode is with Dr. Tiffany Moon, an anesthesiologist in Dallas, Texas.

In this episode we talk about:
- Having twin girls as an attending
- Her decision to go back to work after 6 weeks of leave
- Her thoughts on distribution of work and time at home during the little kid years
- Starting a wine company with her husband
- Starting a candle company during the COVID pandemic, somewhat accidentally
- Writing a memoir, which comes out in Spring 2025
- Creating the LeadHer Summit to empower women

LeadHer Summit Nov 8-10, 2024:
- Click here to register
- Use code "MOM" for $300 off registration

Connect with Dr. Tiffany Moon @tiffanymoonmd:
- Instagram
- Tiktok
- X
- Youtube

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com 

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"I feel like I was able to spend those years of fellowship really asking this question of how do I want this career to fit into my life. Before I never really
 understood what it was going to feel like to be a mom or to be a wife or what it was going to feel like to just want to be Rene and who I am and the rest of the things. For so long, understandably so, the main focus was how do I become the best doctor and that's what you need to get through medical school and residency to get the best training to be a good doctor but I started to realize that if I was only thinknig about my career and that was it and I wasn't giving ample priority to the rest of the things around it, then I would eventually hate my job for what it was taking away from the other parts."

This episode is with Dr. Renee Rodriguez Paro, a pediatric cardiologist in California.

In this episode we talk about:
- The decision to change your name
- Being married to a physician - the good and the bad!
- Starting a podcast with her husband called "Reconciling Medicine"
- Having a baby in pediatric residency and going back to work after 6 weeks
- Starting fellowship with a 6 month old baby and questioning if she should leave fellowship
- Considering surgery and ultimately deciding she wasn't sure want to be part of a two surgeon family and she loved clinic just as much if not more than the OR
- Shifting career priorities pre- and post-kids
- Making the decision to leave academic medicine
- Her view on part-time work for herself as well as globally for other physicians
- Becoming department chair
- Running marathons!

Connect with Renee:
- Instagram @drreneeparo

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com 

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"I came to this point where I am like 6 months post partum at this point. So I've gone back to work, you know was in the swing of things, was working at that point 3 sometimes 4 days per week and I just was not happy in either situation. I wasn't fully happy at home and I wasn't fully happy at work and I told my employer 'I love you guys and I love it here but I just think I need to step away' and they were all like 'What are you gonna do?' And that was the first time in my life where I had no plan and it was terrifying."

This episode is with Dr. Fatima Fahs, a dermatologist in Michigan who also runs a subscription box company called DermyDocBox. We discuss:

- Having kids at all stages of medical training
- The motivation behind starting her company and then actually doing it
- The idea that if you are capable of getting through medical training you are capable of anything
- Her "crash and burn moment"
- Deciding to step away from medicine for a time without a plan
- What she's up to now

Follow Fatima on social media:
@dermy_doctor
@dermydocbox

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

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This episode is with Dr. Polly van den Berg, an Infectious Disease physician in Philadelphia.

We talk about:
- Timing of having a child in the context of her husband's brain cancer diagnosis
- Post-partum anxiety
- and so much more!

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

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This episode is with Dr. Laura Vater, a GI oncologist in Indiana who focuses her non-clinical time on humanism, writing and well-being

We talk about:
- Writing her first novel and working on getting it published
- Having her daughter in medical school
- Breastfeeding her daughter for 2.5 years while being an internal medicine resident
- The inspiration and motivation behind creating the life support community to support people in medicine
- Her family's decision to have her husband quit his job and be home full time
- Her presence on social media and what it means to her
- How she creates habits to incorporate wellbeing into her life
- Choosing the buckets of what matters to you
- Knowing when to say yes, no, or later
- Prioritizing time with her family in the summer 

Connect with Laura Vater:
- Life Support Community: patreon.com/DocLauraVater
- Instagram @doclauravater

Connect with Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram @moms_of_medicine
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

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"I was super present with my kids when I was home. I didn't pull out phones, there weren't cell phones way back then that were so distracting. I would try not to be on the computer and making phone calls and things like that. I remember it that way of just being as present as possible. My kids still remember I was getting up at 6 in the morning and making them pancakes before they had to go to school and I had to go to work. So I really sacrificed sleep a lot because when they went to bed I would get the computer back out and do what needed to be done."

This episode is with Dr. Marci Snodgrass, who did medicine as a second career, worked as a full time family medicine physician in Davis, CA , and now works part-time for an FQHC.

- Going to medical school while in her 30s and her motivation behind doing so
- Being 8 months pregnant while interviewing for medical school
- Working as a family physician on call 24/7 for her OB patients
- Her current part-time role where she covers inboxes for people who are away, and how this setup allows her to travel along with her daughter's job to help care for her granddaughter
- What her one regret is
- Her reflections on how she raised two successful kids while being dedicated to her job
- Her adult kids' reflections on having a busy mom physician
- Words of wisdom for how to be an amazing mom and exceptional physician

Follow Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram

Contact:
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

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"After week 17 I think, I was worried about him. I knew that with my fibroids I would have pain. I was like it will be worse than what I had with my periods, but, well I can handle pain. I didn't factor in the emotional aspect of that. Like worrying about losing someone. So that to me was the hardest part."

This episode is with Dr. Mwanasha Merril, a hematology and oncology fellow at Dana Farber Cancer Institute

We talk about:
- Having fibroids and how that impacted her pregnancy
- The challenge of having significant pain in her pregnancy and how that impacted her personally as well as her fellowship training
- Bringing her baby to meet her family in Malawi
- What life looks like for her now as she finishes up fellowship with a 13 month old baby

Follow Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram

Contact:
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

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"Just before I turned 34 weeks I was doing my fellows clinic from my hospital room. I had a sign on the door like 'Do Not Disturb, I'm in clinic', and they were like we have to get your vitals at some point during this. So they came and took my blood pressure and it was like 170/100. The resident was pushing IV labetalol while I was precepting with my attending, and finally I was just like 'Ok, I think I'm done with clinic'. I had a few more patients left in the day and I was just like 'I'm done. I can't do this'."

This episode is with Dr. Gila Hoffman, a gastroenterologist in St. Louis who specializes in inflammatory bowel disease.

We talk about:
- Finding out she was having twins
- Doing telehealth fellows clinic from her hospital bed
- Having a miscarriage in residency
- Missing out on the beginning of GI fellowship on maternity leave and having to catch up
- The differences between having a baby as a fellow vs an attending

Follow Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram

Contact:
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

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"Within the span of an hour and a half our lives had gone from I'll be back in 90 minutes to go in and do my surgeries and move on, to we're having a girl let's celebrate, and then we're holding hands just with our hearts in our throat"

This episode is with Dr. Liliana Camison, a plastic surgeon and craniofacial surgery fellow at NYU

We talk about:
- Late pregnancy loss and deciding on termination
- Having her rainbow baby
- Fellowhsip interviews with an 8 week old baby and her mom in tow
- She and her husband making the decision to do a year apart so that she could do fellowship
- Living in NYC with her parents and her baby while her husband lives in Pittsburgh
and so much more!

Follow Liliana:
-instagram @lilianacamison

Follow Moms of Medicine:
- Instagram

Contact:
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

Support the show

"Studying burnout has showed us that having control over your job, over your work life, is such an important component of being satisified, of not being burned out, that it makes me sad for women like you and women now giving birth and trying to find balance, in particular in primary care. I think there are just more and more barriers to it unfortunately."

This episode is with Dr. Gila Kriegel, a primary care doctor at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

We talk about:
- Part-time work
- The underground mother's club
- Having a spouse in medicine
- Having twins
and so much more!

Follow Moms of Medicine:
- Twitter
- Instagram

Contact:
- Momsofmedicine@gmail.com

Follow Ali:
- Twitter 

Support the show