BS Free MD with Drs. May and Tim Hindmarsh - Medicine, Life, Family, Physician, Doctor, Healthcare, Medical History · Doctor Podcast Network

430 — “Dr. Susan Landers on Strengthening Support Systems for Working Mothers”

·1 hr 17 min·4 clips

Susan Landers says internet breast-milk sharing can expose babies to HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C, and contamination.

1. BS Free MD with Drs. May and Tim Hindmarsh centers this episode on Dr. Susan Landers and working-mother support systems. 2. Dr. Susan Landers is a retired neonatologist and author of So Many Babies, and her 34-year NICU career gives the discussion its clinical context. 3. The episode asks how working mothers, especially physicians, can keep careers and family responsibilities functional at the same time. 4. Landers says she practiced neonatology for 34 years and often knew NICU families for months, including parents of preterm triplets born at 24 weeks. 5. She explains that she contacted former patients' parents for permission before writing their baby stories and says every parent said yes. 6. Landers says only about 10% of newborns go to the neonatal intensive care unit, and she chose stories that showed both successful and difficult outcomes. 7. She describes weaving together NICU stories with her own experiences as a working mom so the book would reflect both work and home pressure. 8. Tim Hindmarsh and May Hindmarsh compare those stories with their own experience of balancing patients, children, call schedules, and family logistics. 9. Landers says her husband, a pediatrician, handled bedtime, books, grocery shopping, and cooking, while she handled school, coaches, costumes, and appointments. 10. She recalls asking an all-male Austin practice in 1997 to start at 8 a.m. instead of 7 a.m. so she could feed her children breakfast and get them on the bus. 11. Landers says women in medicine have helped soften specialties by spending more time with patients and talking about feelings more easily. 12. She also says she worries that some women now enter medicine specifically to work part time, which she would not have wanted for herself. 13. May Hindmarsh describes feeling pulled between kids and practice, including the strain of a 2005-era message that she had to choose between family and career. 14. Landers responds that workplaces are slowly becoming more family-friendly and says the pandemic showed that remote work can help parents manage home life. 15. The discussion returns to burnout, and Landers says working mothers often take on too much responsibility while also comparing themselves with social media images of perfect homes and children. 16. She says she needed about 10 years of motherhood to learn self-care, including exercise, coffee with friends, outdoor time, journaling, and support groups. 17. Landers describes a Methodist minister who was also a psychiatrist convening four medical couples every other Sunday night to talk about parenting, marriage, and work. 18. The conversation stays conversational and personal, with the hosts adding their own examples, interruptions, and family stories rather than a formal lecture format. 19. Listeners balancing medicine, children, and caregiving responsibilities. 20. Listeners who want pure medical technical detail without personal stories.

As heard by us

A blunt, practical look at support, burnout, and the pressure of working motherhood.

This episode takes a blunt look at working motherhood, support systems, and the strain of juggling newborn care, career demands, and family responsibilities. Dr.

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Why you'd press play

If the newborn scramble is wrecking your balance, this one gets straight to the point.

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