Are you my mother?

By: Stacy Hall

Class of 2012, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine

It would seem that no one in their right mind would attempt to become a mother while in their first year of vet school at UC Davis. But, on the day of orientation in September of 2008, I found out I was pregnant. I had finally achieved my dream of going to vet school at UCD and here I was starting out the year, not knowing a soul, and pregnant. My husband and I decided that I would not take a year off and would brave the unknown of being a pregnant freshman veterinary student.

With my pink respiration mask in hand, I walked into my first anatomy lab and began dissecting a dog. It was a bit like being in high school with the rumors flying, so it didn’t take long for everyone to figure out that I was “in foal.” I did not allow myself any caffeine for the first trimester, so while my classmates started a coffee tab at the local Starbucks, wishing they could start an IV drip of caffeine, I got through my first quarter without a drop. When everyone celebrated the end of finals with champagne in the hallway, out came the Martinelli’s for me.

During classes, one would periodically hear an “ouch” as my baby would kick me in the ribs while listening to a lecture in Parasitology. I lovingly began calling her a parasite genus Fetus species arielles (we had decided to name her Arielle).  When Spring came and everyone was planning their summer internships, I was planning for child birth. As it turned out, I had moderate thrombocytopenia and was not allowed an epidural. So, I planned for a natural child birth. Little did I know she was going to weigh 10lbs 1oz and be 3 weeks late. I continued attending lab sessions (I felt as big as a house) and taking my midterms (didn’t have a reason not to, since the baby had not come yet).

She did finally come on May 22 and I delivered her naturally over the course of 23 hours. A week later, I began studying for finals and took three of them, while taking an incomplete in the other three, to make up over the summer. The school allowed me a private room to take the exams and my mother walked Arielle around outside until she needed to nurse and then she was brought to me for a quick nursing break and then back to the exam.

The summer was spent studying for my remaining 3 classes and learning to be a mother, which might as well be a summer internship, as I had no idea what I was doing. As it turned out, becoming a mother was the best thing that ever happened to me. And, it is possible to have a child and not take time off of school. With the growing number of women in the field, there will be a growing number of new moms, and I want everyone to know that it is possible. The campus provides a lactation room for pumping, which we lovingly call the “milking parlor.” Arielle has been through a year of vet school with me and will perhaps someday follow in her mother’s footsteps of becoming a veterinarian, the best career in the world.