Campus Trends- A Mother’s Struggle

Women must constantly decide between children and career, but one woman’s situation has proved more complicated than others. As reported in a New York Times article, Sophie Currier has been denied extra time for her last test to earn her medical license. Currier appealed to the National Board of Medical Examiners for more time to take her exam so that she could take breaks to breast feed her 4-month-old child, but the board denied her request.

This Wednesday, the Massachusetts Superior Court will determine if Currier’s extension should be granted. Currier, who has a doctorate in neuroscience from Harvard, will have to deny her residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital in November if she does not pass the test.

Events like these further demonstrate how ill-informed professionals, even doctors, can be of a mother’s needs. Currier should be given the time she needs to breast feed her child. Most physicians recommend breast feeding as the healthiest form of nourishment for an infant. Currier has proven that she is a capable, smart woman and should not be prosecuted because of the timing of her pregnancy with her professional life. A man with an infant can leave the child at home, a nursing woman cannot.

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