Nisha Mehta, MD

A little different from what I normally post, but sharing a story I thought other professional #women in male-dominated fields may relate to.

I was traveling for business recently and the company sent a car service to meet me at the airport. I was waiting in the pick up location (and was the only one there!) and saw a man looking around. Finally I approached him and asked, “Are you with the car service provided by company X?“ He looked at me confused and replied, “Why yes, are you Dr. Mehta?“

Later, in the car, he casually said, “I was looking for a man. I’m glad you found me - I guess I dressed the part of a chauffeur well!”

Awkward. In my head, I thought, “I guess I don’t dress the part of Dr. well - i.e. I’m female?”

I didn’t want to make him feel bad, but during our hours together that day, I did make sure to talk to him about changing demographics in medicine and mention that over 50% of currently matriculated medical students are female.

I guess we’ve still got a lot of work to do! Anybody else have a story?

Btw, the picture is a little facetious because my parents didn't want me to marry a doctor (and of course I did, but that's another story!).

#femalephysician #womeninmedicine #womeninleadership #womenentrepreneurs #professionalwomen #womeninbusiness #womenfounders

Over a decade ago, on Mother's Day, I brought home the most perfect baby boy to what a lot of people in my professional life thought was a pretty imperfect situation.

My husband and I were in the busiest years of residency (fun fact: my husband's surgical oncology team rounded with him at 5:30 AM in my hospital room the morning of discharge). My attendings had expressed concerns that I would fail my oral boards given the timing of the baby. We lived in a 600 sq ft apartment on a 2 resident salary where one went to housing and the other went to childcare. I'd chosen not to apply for fellowship that year because my husband's match was later in the year then mine, and distance wasn't an option. I got a lot of comments about how it was obvious I'd chosen the “wife of the plastic surgeon pathway“ and that I'd “wasted my education.“

If you know me, you know I don't care a lot about what other people think, but those years were difficult nonetheless. The pressure to prove to everyone in both my professional and personal life that I could “do it all“ weighed on me. I did pass my oral boards, I convinced the chair at UNC to create a fellowship/attending spot for me for the three years my husband did his plastic and reconstructive fellowship at Duke, and I had my second son during my first year as an attending, where I had deja vu as people echoed concerns about the timing of the second one as well.

While there are also lots of great memories from those years, those first few years of motherhood weren't pretty behind the scenes. My husband was barely home (my 2nd had legitimate stranger anxiety with him), my kids spent a lot of time after daycare back at the office with me, and I was constantly defending choices such as using the full amount of maternity leave or turning down opportunities because there just wasn't the bandwidth.

It was (and continues to be) an act of survival, and thankfully I have my own absolutely amazing parents and a wonderful husband who support me and cheer me on in all of my endeavors.

Ultimately, though, those years were also packed with valuable life lessons that have fueled my desire to change the culture of medicine, and have helped my boys turn into confident, independent young men that are their mom's biggest advocates. My boys provide hugs and laughs when I need them, cook me dinner if they know I've had a long day, and most importantly, keep everything in perspective. I could not be luckier.

To all the moms out there doing all the things, I see you - if you're in the thick of it, know that you can do the hard things. To those of you earlier in your journeys, trust me when I say that it'll all work out because ultimately, you won't have a choice but to just figure it out. To those of you for whom today is a hard day, I see that too. It's estimated that 1 in 4 female physicians struggle with infertility, and we need to further that dialogue and find solutions.

#mothersday #physicianmom #workingmom