Women in Science
When is the best time to have children?
Video clip: Eleanor decided to have her children while she was doing some of her research, because at that time she had flexible hours.
Did you make any definite decisions about the timing of your children or is it just something that wasn’t particularly planned?
I’ve got a husband that’s five years younger than me so he took some persuading so I mean that was, you know that was a factor. It was a joint decision, but for me personally I’d have found it quite difficult when I, I mean for example the liver transplant year, where that was an incredibly intense medical year on the wards, that would’ve have been very, very difficult, and I think in research you have the flexibility around planning your own time and your own day. So I actually think that’s quite a good time to have your kids because you can manage your day flexibly. You can finish when you want to finish. You can come back to it later in the evening when your kids have gone to bed if, if you’ve got the energy. But I think it works quite well to have kids during your research time. It’s more difficult on the ward. Often you can’t leave the wards at 5 o’clock because you’ve got an ill person in front of you and it’s not possible so, I think it, yes.