After four months of maternity leave I decided to return to work. In order to do so I had to pass a Fit For Duty Physical evaluation that included pulling hose, forcing a door, taking a hydrant, throwing and moving ladders, and completing a “Vent Enter Search” scenario. I also had to complete multiple intubations in the Operating Room at our local hospital to be cleared to return to work as a Paramedic. Additionally, I rode in a “third-person” position for forty hours to brush up on my paramedicine before being cleared to work by our Training Division and Medical Control Doctor.
Returning to work has brought unique challenges to my marriage but has also created some amazing growth for us both. My husband cares for our twins full time while I am working my 24 hour shift and when I get home I try to do most of the childcare so he can return to his full time job as a Realtor.
One obstacle I did not anticipate was the difficulty in finding time to express milk at work. I often found myself only able to express at bedtime due to high call volume, training, and other duties around the station. While I am still breastfeeding, my supply has significantly decreased over the past two months.
In other news, and perhaps most importantly, last week 21 firefighters from 11 different departments from the Seattle area met in person and via Zoom to discuss how to write the optimal Fire Department Family Planning Policy. We were honored to have two doctors from the National Development and Research Institutes (NDRI) as well as a Captain Paramedic from San Francisco Fire Department join in our discussion. We identified the areas of importance that need to be included in a policy and shared our personal experiences with pregnancy, fertility treatment, adoption, breastfeeding, pumping at work, maternity leave, uniforms and more. Our goal is to reconvene in the next few months to further our efforts in writing what we hope is a “Gold Standard” Family Planning Policy that can be adopted by all our departments.
As I reflect back on In Vitro Fertilization, pregnancy, my scheduled cesarean section, postpartum recovery and return to work, I am relieved with how well it all went but also more inspired than ever to help every department adopt a policy that protects, informs and provides support for its members. The story I’ve heard over and over this year is “I got pregnant and my department asked me to write/update our Pregnancy Policy.” It shouldn’t be up to each individual pregnant women to undertake the challenge of writing a comprehensive policy and I look forward to working with this amazing group of women we have assembled to write what is hopefully a Gold Standard Policy.
