As a medical student and young doctor, I had an aim to work rurally as a country GP. After graduation I did two years at Western General Hospital in Footscray with that goal in mind.

In my 3^rd year I joined the Rotating Residency Program to train for country GP practice. I spent 6 months in Dimboola with my young family working with the local doctor.

I loved it, and was sure I had found my career path.

But it wasn’t to be!

That’s because O&G found me.

You see, the next 6 months of my third year was spent doing a Diploma of Obstetrics at Mercy Hospital for Women.

It’s not that I thought I wouldn’t like the work, it just never occurred to me that I would. I grew up in a household of 6 boys and no female siblings, so the topic of pregnancy wasn’t brought up much.

(I know you probably just mouthed the 3 words “Your poor mother!”)

Yet when it came down to it, I loved it.

I loved the relationships you developed with the women you were involved with, you helped them during pregnancy and birth, you came out at the end of the day buzzing with what you had been involved with.

A few of the senior doctors I worked with me suggested I was a good fit to this work and encouraged me to join the specialist training program.

I applied and was accepted the next year.

It was the best professional decision I have ever made.

I spent 4 years at the Mercy Hospital for Women, then a year as a senior registrar at Monash Medical Centre, followed by a year at the famous “Holles St” in Dublin, Ireland.  It’s a hospital widely known for “active management of birth” and a very low caesarean section rate.

After returning to Melbourne, my training was completed as the inaugural fellow at Mercy Hospital for Women – with a focus on advanced laparoscopic surgery.

I commenced private practice based around St Vincent’s in Fitzroy, Freemasons, and the Mercy with an extensive public practice at Mercy Hospital for Women involving general O&G, laparoscopic surgery unit, infertility unit, colposcopy and the family birth unit.

The Mercy eventually moved to Heidelberg and my public work became more limited. Now I’m fulltime in my own practice, but still involved in teaching midwifery and medical students.

Working with a team of committed midwives to help women through arguably the biggest life event is a wonderful career. I feel a deep sense of meaning every day, being involved with women I get to know well as they move through the pregnancy and birth journey.

Who wouldn’t?