ABSTRACT
It is the third day after birth. Highly complicated birth. Finally, we meet. A nurse hands her to me. Mentions something about the redness from forceps all across left cheek. Says not to worry – that it will disappear soon. Everything will be fine in just no time. She has very good weight, has recovered during these days apart from me and is now ready to meet with me. I am really not worried about her cheek. But I am worried. Worried about the trauma at birth. About the lack of oxygen. About the Apgar score of 4. Forceps. I somehow know deep inside that serious difficulties lie ahead. I feel it. I can think of cerebral palsy, epilepsy, all the developmental conditions I have learned in medical school – in a month I am going to be awarded a medical degree. For the majority of the medical students, both female and male, getting married and having their first child during the last couple of years of studies has been a norm for decades. It has been of particular significance for female medical students since it has been found much easier to give birth during the last couple of years of the six-year medical program than during any other time after the graduation. As a practicing doctor, the responsibilities and decision making for patient care on a daily basis could seriously interfere with the demands of pregnancy, birth, and the postpartum period. Being a medical student or a young doctor in a country with a high rate of female doctors, in a society where female doctors have been dominating the medical field for decades, means that getting married and having the first child at the same age as others outside the medical field – before the age of 25 – has been seen not just as being a normal part of the human experience, but 6encouraged by the medical faculty itself. So, here I am, meeting my first child while getting ready to take the Hippocratic oath in less than two months where I will swear “I will use treatment to help the sick according to my ability and judgment” and “May I long experience the joy of healing those who seek my help.”
