Moms of Medicine

26. Long distance parenting, maternity leave challenges, and being a hardcore surgeon and amazing mom with Dr. Nichole Shaw

Moms of Medicine

Show Notes

"I felt totally stripped of everything that I had ever thought of myself because I was not going to work, so I was really kind of just tied to my house for 6 weeks. I was bored! I wanted to be working, I wanted to be doing easy cases. The baby slept so much. I'm like what do I do? And then she never really latched and so I was exclusively pumping straight away. I could have tried breastfeeding for longer but I knew I only had 5 weeks of maternity leave and I wasn't going to fight her every fe...

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Sep 17, 2026

In this conversation, Ali and Shani revisit the realities of burnout, perfectionism, and rebuilding a career in medicine in a way that actually fits your life. Shani shares how closing her practice, going part time, and coaching women in medicine all connect to one idea: you do not have to wait for some future milestone to feel joy. We discuss practical mindset tools for handling difficult moments, how to reframe failure and sunk cost thinking, and why small daily actions matter more than w...

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Key topics In this episode, Susan explains that getting pregnant with Nicholas took about a year, similar to her experience conceiving Maddie, but for different reasons.She shares that after Maddie’s birth she had prolonged bleeding, which led to a DNC after a retained piece of placenta was found.Susan describes how that earlier procedure likely contributed to Asherman syndrome, with significant scar tissue in the uterus discovered during fertility workup.We discuss the repeated procedures ...

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Finally sharing about the day Colin was born! Timestamps 00:00 - Introducing Colin’s birth story and the weekend that led up to it 01:00 - Why the induction was scheduled around 37 weeks 02:00 - A calm morning with Connor before heading to daycare 03:00 - Boston rush hour versus the chaos of natural labor 04:00 - Checking in at the hospital and the first emotional moment with the OB team 05:00 - Crying when kindness hit harder than strength 06:00 - Why sh...

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