Mothers In Medicine Podcast · Mothers In Medicine

How can we master the return? Dr Helen Fidler

June 5, 2023·22 min·1 clip

She returned to work six weeks after giving birth as a transplant doctor and it very quickly all went slightly wrong.

Dr. Helen Fidler, a consultant gastroenterologist, deputy chair of the UK Consultants Committee, and mother of five, shares her raw experience of returning to work after maternity leave five times over her career. Starting with a six-week return to a transplant job in the early 1990s that led to depression, she describes the isolation, impossible standards, and systemic lack of support for mothers in medicine, along with practical advice for navigating the return.

As heard by us

A clear, practical look at the strain of returning to medicine after maternity leave.

Mothers in Medicine treats the return to work after maternity leave as a frank and useful conversation about exhaustion, anxiety, and the pressure to feel fully present in two demanding places at once.

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Why you'd press play

For the week when maternity leave ends and the return feels heavier than expected.

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