Mothers In Medicine Podcast · Mothers In Medicine

How can we set boundaries and manage expectations as mothers in medicine ? Dr Rachel Morris

October 8, 2023·24 min·1 clip

Dr. Shola opens with the strain of choosing between patients and children. She says she does not want women to ever have to make that decision, and she frames the cost as an emotional load that still lands too heavily on mothers. The conversation stays personal. She introduces Dr. Rachel Morris as a former GP with a background in medical education, an executive coach and trainer, a former executive director for Mothers in Medicine, and the host of You Are Not a Frog, then uses that setup to talk about expectations and boundaries in a life that has to hold medicine and motherhood at once. The tone is steady. Rachel speaks as someone who works with resilience in high stress jobs, and the discussion keeps circling back to what taking back control actually looks like when time and attention are already split. She is blunt about hindsight. Rachel says she did not handle boundaries well herself and makes clear that her advice comes from looking back rather than pretending she had it sorted in the moment. The practical part comes quickly. She says mothers need sleep, food, water, connection with friends, time away from small children, and some form of self-care, because if you are not okay, you cannot be the mom that you want to be. The logic is plain. The show lets that idea sit without turning it into a slogan. Enforcing boundaries is where the real tension lives. Rachel says most people know what the boundary should be, but the problem starts when someone does not like it and the limit begins to crumble under the pressure. She ties that struggle to motherhood directly. Mothers are often dealing with other people not liking their boundaries all the time, and even toddlers can seem impossible to satisfy. The talk turns inward near the end. Rachel asks listeners to look at the stories they tell themselves, especially the ones built around not being good enough, the old shoulds and oughts, and the guilt that follows them around. She points toward change. Training courses, therapy, reading, and podcasts all come up as ways to start thinking differently about the choices you are making, and the episode closes by treating that shift as work worth doing.

As heard by us

A frank look at boundaries, guilt, and the cost of trying to meet every demand.

This conversation centers on the pressure of choosing between patients and children, and on how women often carry the emotional load alongside everyone else's expectations. It stays focused on boundaries, self-worth, and the toll of trying to meet constant demands. Dr.

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Why you'd press play

For when being a mother and a doctor feels hectic, and your calendar has more opinions than hours.

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