For the past three months, I've been walking along the terrazzo-floored aisle of the labor room at the hospital where I currently work as the women's laboring sirens of aid and pain spread across the ward. Along with baby monitors, contractions that climb higher than a mountain, and nurses calling out doctors for any trivial inconvenience, I still find myself content with my choice to pursue OB/Gyne.
Why OB/Gyne?
A question that ran through my mind like a river. Since high school, I've been fascinated by pregnancies and female reproductive health. At first, it was an appeal, which soon developed into an actual career. And looking at myself now, where I stand, my body sends pleasant shudders to my spine. So, to sum it up, why OB/Gyne?
1) "It felt like it was my calling."
2) The majority of medical issues are treatable.
3) First breath: Delivering BABIES! Because what's more miraculous than bringing life into the world and handing babies to their mothers.
4) The opportunity to accompany women throughout their life span and follow up with their health.
5) Hands-on skills!
6) It's a versatile job: You get to work at clinics, have one-to-one conversations with the patients, get your hands dirty in the theater room, and you also get to be a radiologist from time to time.
OB/Gyne is eye-opening for me, from stained liquor newborns to fresh blood oozing under the laminated drapes and soaking up my socks through my crocs. Yes, I know, disgusting? No, not for me, though.
This field showed me how mighty women are—women of diverse backgrounds and social standings. I've met enduring women who went through active miscarriages, delivery of their demise fetus, and complicated deliveries, who will willingly repeat the cycle to hold their lively, warm child again.
And just like this stressful reproductive process, OB/Gyne is
topped with stress and long hours, but as one of my doctor friends once said, "Most medical fields are stressful. You just have to settle for the kind of stress you find most alluring."
And it's true; OB/Gyne is very rewarding. A patient's appreciative gesture can erase a day worth of wild trauma and drama at the end of the day. Besides, OB/Gyne is like fireworks: it's loud, bright, and multicolored.
Though it's soon to reckon, and despite what many of those I've encountered throughout my rotations have said about me being too small or too dainty or how I seem too nice for this particular field, the more I plan to stand up for the challenge. As Fred Devito once said, "If it doesn't challenge you, it doesn't change you."
Frankly, I have always believed in standing up to my beliefs of genuinely being myself at my work of place, if it's among my co-workers or patients. One central fact I've heard often and noticed was the idea of being aggressive or bold enough to survive OB/Gyne. This might be true if you were part of a residency program under competitive heat, but not against patients. Sadly, I have witnessed some doctors play it a little too rough, making me annoyingly speechless. Like I wasn't entitled to view my points.
Once, I was called to see a patient in the labor room to assess her analgesic demands who exhaustingly said to me with sweat and tears dripping over her face, "Why are those doctors very mean?" In other terms, assertive and untouched.
With me trying to explain why some doctors may seem slightly mean, I understand why it's essential to put ourselves in their shoes before letting our attitude take over any position unless it's a life-threatening situation where assertive interventions are needed. And this is where my beliefs barge in, beliefs of being the understanding, I-will-try-to-do-my-best, and the collective physician I could be.
In the end, a job isn't just a job. It's who you are.