Every second Sunday of May is internationally celebrated as Mother’s Day. Two Radboud students will celebrate the day as new mothers for the first time this year. Vox has met them to talk about the perks of being a student-mother – and the challenges. ‘If you want to be a mother, don’t wait.’

It’s Heleen Randag’s second day back at university when we meet for our interview. The 31-year-old medical science student’s maternity leave has just ended and in a few months, she will graduate. For now, she still has some mixed feelings about being back at university: ‘I’m very excited to start again,’ she says. ‘It’s nice to not only have to think about diapers and poop and sleep. But it’s also strange to not be with my daughter.’

Nicole Schijff (31) has been back since the beginning of the study year. Her daughter Olivia is a bit older than Randag’s daughter Fenna. Right now, Schijff is doing a pre-master, also in medicine. ‘I studied medicine a few years ago already,’ she explains. ‘But I stopped and did another master and worked for a while. But there was always this itch to get back to it.’ Combining motherhood with a degree is all about figuring out what works for you, Schijff says.

‘It’s nice to not only have to think about diapers and poop and sleep’

Schijff tries to attend all of her classes, but if that is not possible, she had to rely on the audio recordings of her classmates for a few of her non-mandatory classes in the past. This would be easier if the university would provide online lectures for these classes. ‘I understand that there are some classes with mandatory attendance,’ she explains. ‘But sometimes I sit in a mandatory one-and-a-half-hour class for which I had to travel all the way from Apeldoorn, where I live, and think: this is something I could have done online.’

Additionally, because her daughter has a medical condition and can’t eat a lot of regular food, she still needs to breastfeed: ‘That’s quite hard on me. Combining the studying, the classes, the traveling, and pumping milk, and not forgetting to take care of myself.’

Disability toilet

According to Schijff, more support from the university with her schedule could make things a lot easier: ‘Sometimes I have one class in the morning and my next class in the evening.’ Especially the classes in the evening are difficult to manage with a child, Schijff says. Additionally, the facilities to pump milk at the university are not optimal.

‘There is a room for pumping milk, but it’s not close to my lectures. So, if I have 45 minutes between classes, I don’t have enough time to go there and pump the milk.’ Because of that, Schijff often has to pump on the disability toilet. ‘I had another space in the past, but it takes too long to know where I can pump, get the necessary key and not forget to return it.’ Randag agrees: ‘That’s exactly why I stopped breastfeeding; I didn’t want to do all this.’

Part-time

Randag is already in the residency stage of her degree, and the challenges are slightly different: ‘I would have loved to do the residency part-time, for example,’ she says. ‘But there are only a few spots and they were already filled.’ However, she understands that organizing a part-time residency is challenging for the university: ‘And I did have priority in choosing my senior residency spot.’

Prior to her pregnancy, Randag was already in contact with the student advisor about what studying while pregnant or as a mother would look like, so she knew what to expect. ‘I did a part of my residency while pregnant. That was quite hard. When I was in eye surgery, for example, I had to stand bent forward for a long time, and that was difficult because your belly is heavy. But I also knew it would only be for five months.’

Experience

Both Randag and Schijff are grateful for some of the support they received from the university. ‘I think the personal touch was good,’ Randag says. ‘For example, the student advisor asked me whether I breastfed. Probably also because they just had Nicole’s case a few months prior. But there are rules that the university cannot change, even if they want to.’

‘It’s hard to hear that you’re using your child as an excuse’

Schijff agrees: ‘I think the university wants to help, but there is a lack of experience in how to support us. Maybe they can learn from these cases to help other mothers.’ At the same time, she also hopes for more understanding from the university: ‘If I have to miss a class because my baby is sick or I have not slept, it’s hard to hear afterwards that you’re using your child as an excuse. That’s painful.’

However, both mothers don’t regret having children during their studies – quite the contrary. Randag: ‘If you want to be a mother, don’t wait. You might have problems having children and will think afterward: why did I not start trying sooner? It may be hard, but you have a wish, and I think that should come before work.’

Better doctor

However, according to Schijff, you should also know where you stand: ‘You never know whether your baby is healthy,’ she says. ‘You will definitely have a bad night of sleep, but it can become way more challenging if your baby has an issue.’ In the worst case, you might not be able to continue your study, Schijff says: ‘You have to be aware that this is risk, and that there is the possibility that you will have to stop.’

‘Being a mother definitely adds to my experience’

However, Schijff says having her daughter has made her a better student: ‘If I compare myself to the person I was when I first studied medicine, I think being a mother definitely adds to my experience.’ This doesn’t mean that every good doctor necessarily has to be a parent, she stresses. ‘But becoming a mother has made me a more responsible person,’ she says. ‘If you’re a mother, your child’s life depends on you. And if you’re a doctor, so do the lives of your patients.’