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Wed 26 Sep, 2007 12:31 pm
Sophie's voice: Breast-feeding mom wins appeal for time on test
9/26/07
BOSTON - A Harvard student must be allowed extra break time during her nine-hour medical licensing exam so she can pump breast milk to feed her 4-month-old daughter, a Massachusetts appeals court judge ruled Wednesday.
Sophie Currier, 33, sued after the National Board of Medical Examiners turned down her request to take more than the standard 45 minutes in breaks during the exam. She said she risks medical complications, including engorgement and inflammation, if she does not nurse her daughter, Lea, or pump breast milk every two to three hours.
A Superior Court judge last week rejected Currier's request to order the board to give her an additional 60 minutes of break time. Appeals Court Judge Gary Katzmann overturned that ruling, finding that Currier needs the extra break time to put her on "equal footing" with the men and non-lactating women who take the exam.
The board had cited the need to be consistent in the amount of break time given and said other nursing mothers who have taken the exam have found 45 minutes in breaks sufficient.
But Katzmann said that amount of break time was "insufficient" for Currier to nurse her baby, properly express breast milk, eat, drink and use the restroom over the course of the nine-hour exam.
Without extra break time, Currier would have to choose between pumping breast milk and ignoring her bodily functions or foregoing pumping and causing herself significant pain, the judge said.
"Under either avenue, (Currier) is placed at significant disadvantage in comparison to her peers," Katzmann wrote in his 26-page ruling.
Calls to Currier, her lawyer and an attorney for the board were not immediately returned.
Currier, of Brookline, has finished a joint M.D.-Ph.D. program at Harvard University while having two babies in the past two years. She has been offered a residency in clinical pathology at Massachusetts General Hospital beginning in November, but cannot accept it unless she passes the test. Her goal is a career in medical research.
Currier took the exam in April when she was 8 1/2 months pregnant, but failed by a few points. She had planned to take the test again earlier this week, but put it off after Norfolk Superior Court Judge Patrick Brady ruled against her last week.
Currier, who also has a 22-month-old son, already has received special accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act for dyslexia and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, including permission to take the test over two days instead of one.
Boston Herald
tinygiraffe wrote:good for her.
In the long haul, it's bad for her and other women MDs.
after posting that i found the other thread, and i'm aware of the posts there. what i overlooked (unless it wasn't discussed) is how this would be detrimental.
basically i got that most people thought it was unwarranted. what do you foresee in the long run?
Future?
I see fewer American women entering the practice of medicine.
just because some woman with add won some concession for them? what obvious detail am i missing here?
I come from a time when almost no women were admitted to US med schools (US and environs) - check the admissions for, probably, 1961 in the book I bought to figure where to apply, in 1962. I think it was probably some official MCAT publication, not sure.
A lot of the bias about women was that they would dump their education to have a family, thus they were a poor investment for the institutions efforts. Plus whatever other bias.
I took boards in another profession, and there was a lot of emphasis those years later in having zilch chance for people to cheat. You didn't pass, you took the part you missed again.
I'm still unresolved on this, as I remain somewhat ignorant about the terribleness of being engorged for a bit. Don't new mothers who don't nurse go through this? Shall all those in that condidtion who didn't pass on that occasion now sue?
She already has two days to take the test that others take in one, is that true?
I'm still unresolved, but busy frowning. A lot of people in those exam rooms are in various kind of personal messes.
As I said, I guess on the other thead, the break time could be enlarged for everyone. I don't like, instinctively, the differentiation in times allotted.
Also, I surmise I've not understood - at what level are these boards? the tests to get out of med school? The tests in one's specialty, called board certification?
ossobuco wrote:I'm still unresolved on this, as I remain somewhat ignorant about the terribleness of being engorged for a bit.
It really, really hurts, and is certainly distracting in these circumstances. Trying to think of equivalent -- nothing exact, but if you had a sprained ankle, say. A sprained ankle that you know is coming, and that you can relieve if you take certain actions.
Quote:Don't new mothers who don't nurse go through this? Shall all those in that condidtion who didn't pass on that occasion now sue?
I'm less sure about what happens when a new mother who gives birth then doesn't breastfeed. I do think there can be painful engorgement, but that timing is less of an issue. That is, I think the painfulness lasts for a limited time (a week? a couple of days? I don't know), whereas engorgement is a constant, every-few-hours risk for a breastfeeding mother in the first 6 months to a year of the baby's life.
My main concern is backlash. That's what has been bothering me about the increasingly frivolous suits under the ADA -- the ADA is an incredibly important piece of legislation and I hate to see it weakened with that stuff. It also means that people view it more negatively and have a worse attitude about following the ADA for the important stuff.
ossobuco wrote:Also, I surmise I've not understood - at what level are these boards? the tests to get out of med school? The tests in one's specialty, called board certification?
These are the boards for the medical license.
One other thing, these boards as far as I know are multiple-choice, while the PhD exams are all nonending essays.
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