Hi, I am a new member. I am a 31 year old female who just started med school in Canada. I was an artist in my former live. I was wondering what some of you feel about having children while in school?
Kassandra
I am against it personally, but since I already have 4 I can’t make a value judgement about it. 
It all depends really. There is no one answer for it. Some do it with little difficulty and some put it off.
Its all in how you handle it.
Kassandra, I know someone who had TWO kids while in med school, and they were joining a sibling who’d been born earlier. Now, frankly, this sounds nuts but the woman who did it was unfazed. Her first med school baby was born during first year - I think the baby was born in March so she accompanied mom to many lectures for the remainder of first year. Second med school baby was born after the end of third year, which is great timing because you can generally schedule a good chunk of down time during fourth year.
There are three new babies in my class just in the past four weeks - these folks planned things right.
End of first year is one ‘window of opportunity,’ if you ask me, because at most schools I’m aware of, you’ve got the summer off before 2d year starts. End of second year is NOT a good time. Your “time off” from class is spent studying for Step 1 of the Boards, and then in late June / early July you go right into third year clerkships which are brutal without a new baby. End of third year is also good timing - because you can customize your fourth year schedule to accommodate the new baby. I’ve also known people to have babies later in fourth year, sometimes deferring residency start for one year. (dunno how that works, but it’s worth asking about)
hope that helps