Mothers In Medicine Podcast · Mothers In Medicine

Coping with fatigue as a MIM: Dr Heather Harris

·34 min·2 clips

Heather says severe generalized anxiety disorder forced her to take about a year off work and stop completely.

A house officer in surgery reflects on how fatigue showed up early in working life. She recalls a punishing one in three rota, arriving in A&E around two or three in the morning, sitting in a comfortable chair, and waking after passing out mid-sentence as the patient got down from the trolley and dressed. That memory stays vivid. From there, the conversation settles into the ordinary, recurring tiredness that comes with medicine, motherhood, and broken sleep, and the way it can make the next day feel blurrier than it should. Dr. Shola names the same strain from her own side of the microphone. She and the guest talk plainly about how tiredness is not unique to mums or to doctors, even if those roles can make it more relentless and harder to ignore. When children sleep, things are easier. When they are unwell or waking through the night, the lack of deep sleep leaves the brain without the reset it needs and the exhaustion builds. She notes that her own children were mostly good sleepers. She also makes space for families whose children do not settle easily, because she has seen how much harder that makes the next day and how sharply it can affect concentration at work. Clinical judgment shifts under that kind of strain. She says difficult decisions take longer when the brain is not firing on all cylinders, so the safer move is often to slow down, make the sensible call, and ask for help when needed. There is humour in her stories. But she is careful not to treat the consequences lightly, because tiredness can sit behind more serious mistakes even when the most vivid memories sound almost comic in hindsight. The pair also talk about the shared culture of exhausted colleagues. She remembers that everyone around her seemed to be having the same experience, so the relief often came from saying it out loud rather than pretending it was normal. Guilt arrives next. She speaks candidly about feeling she could be a better mother, then being too depleted to figure out how to change it. Her advice is simple. Do your best, try again next time, and do not beat yourself up for not being perfect.

As heard by us

A candid look at tiredness, judgment, and the guilt that follows both at home and on call.

It treats fatigue as both a medical and a domestic pressure, and that split gives the piece its best shape. It moves well from the comic jolt of collapsing in A&E as a tired house officer to the quieter truth that broken sleep, sick children, and long shifts all pull from the…

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Why you'd press play

For when tiredness is starting to shape your work and home life.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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