Re: Nursing Mother Goes to Court for Exam Time
From: Deborah.Bopp@memorialhealthsystem.com
Tue Sep 11 10:26:26 2007
Women are always so proud of how they make it fit in a man's world.
II'm glad someone is trying to make a woman's world.
Deborah Bopp
RN, MS
Perinatal Clinical Nurse Specialist
Memorial Health System
Colorado Springs, Colorado
80919
719-365-5080
Pg 279-0347
deborah.bopp@memoriahealthsystem.com
"Meenan, Anna" <annam@uic.edu>
Sent by: ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net To
Multiple recipients of list OB-GYN-L <ob-gyn-l@dns.obgyn.net>
cc
09/10/2007 03:38 PM
Subject
Re: Nursing Mother Goes to Court for Exam Time
Please respond to
ob-gyn-l@obgyn.net
having a lively discussion of this one over at
sermo.com (and BTW, some of you never signed up
using the e-mail link i sent you. Still need 3
more to get my ipod--there is still time to sign
up)
There are links there to articles with more
information about this young woman. I am a
staunch breastfeeding advocate and breastfed 2 of
my 3 kids while working full time, many days with
only a few minutes to pump. I am just wondering
if she is going to expect her pathology residency
to give her an extra hour to pump every day. LOL
That should be interesting.
Anna Meenan, MD, FAAFP
>.
>
>Nursing Mother Goes to Court for Exam Time
>
>By ELIZABETH OLSON [New York Times]
>
>One test stands between Sophie Currier and her Harvard medical degree and a
>prestigious residency.
>
>But Ms. Currier says she runs a high risk of failing the test unless the
>National Board of Medical Examiners gives her additional break time to pump
>breast milk for her 4-month-old daughter.
>
>The board has refused the request, and on Thursday, Ms. Currier asked a
>Massachusetts Superior Court judge to order it to give her extra time on each
>of two days of testing, plus a private room with a power outlet so she can
>express her milk in private with an electric pump. (The nine-hour exam, on
>clinical knowledge, allows 45 minutes for breaks.)
>
>The case, to be heard on Wednesday, is a harbinger of what could be a growing
>problem. More women than ever are studying medicine, and they must take three
>exams to become doctors. At the same time, groups like the American Academy of
>Pediatrics strongly encourage breast-feeding for its health and developmental
>benefits.
>
>Ms. Currier, 33, of Brookline, Mass., wrote to the medical examiners’ board in
>June to request the extra time, saying she
>needed to pump milk to avoid painful
>breast engorgement and mastitis, an infection
>stemming from blocked milk ducts.
>
>In a letter dated July 11, Catherine Farmer, the board’s manager of disability
>services, responded that it could accommodate only conditions covered by the
>Americans With Disabilities Act. She added that
>Ms. Currier could spend some of
>her break time pumping breast milk in another testing room. Testing rooms are
>monitored and have glass walls.
>
>Ms. Farmer said on Friday that the board’s privacy policy prohibited it from
>commenting on individual cases.
>
>Ms. Currier, who holds a doctorate in neuroscience from Harvard, has received
>some accommodation from the board for dyslexia and attention deficit
>hyperactivity disorder. She can take the nine-hour test over two days instead
>of one, but she is seeking an additional 60-minute break on each day.
>
>Dr. Alison Stuebe, a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and a
>member of the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine, supported Ms. Currier’s
>request in an affidavit filed with the court.
>
>“Forty-five minutes,” Dr. Stuebe wrote, “is insufficient time for a nursing
>mother of a 4-month-old to eat, drink, use the restroom and to fully and
>properly express breast milk using an electric pump two times over the course
>of eight hours.”
>
>If Ms. Currier is forced to delay taking the exam, “it will cause her
>significant hardship” by delaying her ability to earn a living and to begin
>repaying school loans, and possibly leading to the loss of clinical knowledge
>and skills, Dr. Stuebe said.
>
>Ms. Currier said she was already feeling pressure because she took the test in
>April, when she was eight months’ pregnant, and failed it by a few points. She
>has been offered a residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General
>Hospital in November, but cannot accept it unless she passes this test, which
>she plans to take on Sept. 15.
>
>“This should be as simple as ducking into the bathroom to pump the milk,” said
>Ms. Currier, who is feeding her daughter breast milk exclusively.
>
>http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/10/health/10breast.html?ref=health
