Pediatric Reflection: Motherhood Taught Me What I Didn’t Know

Kaitlyn M. Murphy, MD

After spending the last decade of my life working toward becoming a pediatrician, I expected to thrive in parenthood. And then my son was born, and I had never felt so overwhelmed. I once saw getting an arterial stick on a preemie as a daunting task—until I sat in tears at 2 am, struggling to get my newborn to latch. I thought q4 28-hours calls were exhausting—until I didn’t sleep through the night for 16 months.

The joys of parenthood are widely celebrated, but despite my education and my immense amount of support and resources, I was blindsided by how hard it was.

As I adjusted to my new normal and returned to work, I felt the struggles of the parents sitting in front of me more deeply than I ever had before. One of my colleagues, Meg Kawan, MD, MPH, IBCLC, had previously done work to improve newborn care at our primary care practice in West Philadelphia. To build on that work, we reflected on the unique social challenges our patients’ caregivers face during this difficult transition as well as the known disparities of infant mortality in our city. We sought to improve the parenting experience for our families by establishing Bright Beginnings.

Bright Beginnings is a monthly parenting group open to all caregivers in our community. Our goal is to create a space for caregivers to share in their parenting struggles, and to realize they are not alone. Each session has a themed discussion with a corresponding expert. Our sessions have included a perinatal therapist normalizing postpartum mood changes and an infectious disease physician discussing vaccines. In addition, each session includes children’s entertainment, such as a children’s musician or an interactive storyteller, to provide a developmentally enriching and bonding activity for the children and their caregivers. Bright Beginnings is supported by a CHOP Cares Grant.

At each well visit, parents sit in our office one on one with their provider, asking questions and seeking advice. We hope this program elevates our care model by providing a group setting where parents can swap tips, share their lived experiences, and validate each other under the guidance of an expert. We hope to provide practical education that meets our families where they are at while helping more parents to realize, “It’s not just me.”