A medic friend of mine made a passing comment that I was lucky to “be at home”—having had a baby three months ago and now on maternity leave. It infuriated me at how naive it is to think we mothers are on a permanent holiday.
Imagine being on call 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, with no protected bleep-free time, no feedback from the patient about how you are doing, no one to ask for help, no team for support, skipping meals because of the workload, vomit on your shirt but no time to change clothes, no healthcare assistants or nurses to clean up the urine and faeces. I could go on and on.
So when will motherhood be recognised as being the hardest job in the world?