Jocelyn asked a question I get a lot but rarely see answered honestly: when is the right time to have kids if you're going into PA school?

I just had a baby, so this one is personal. Here's my honest answer: there isn't a perfect time. There's no window where school is easy, work is calm, money is settled, and your body cooperates on schedule. Waiting for that window means waiting forever.

What matters more is your support system and being clear-eyed about what you're taking on. Pregnancy doesn't follow a plan. Programs have different policies about leave. Talk to people who've done it, and know that plenty of PAs have kids during school, during their first job, and everywhere in between.

This is your life, not a checklist. You get to decide the order.

What I cover:

• Whether there's a "right" time to start a family
• Having a baby during or right after PA school
• Why your support system matters more than your timeline
• Talking to programs about leave policies
• Being realistic about what pregnancy does to a plan
• Deciding what you actually want, not what looks tidy

Resources:

Pre-PA counseling: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/pre-pa-counseling

Free application timeline: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-application-timeline

PA Program Map: https://www.thepaplatform.com/pa-platform-map

Free personal statement worksheet: https://www.thepaplatform.com/services/free-personal-statement-worksheet-download

Mentioned in this episode:

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Welcome to episode 91.

Today we're talking about some life stuff.

You know, even though you want to become a pa, you probably have other goals, such as getting married and having kids.

So that's what we're diving into with a voicemail message.

And yeah, let's get to it.

Welcome to the Pre PA Club Podcast.

If you want to learn how to.

Become a physician assistant, you're in the right place.

I'm your host, Savannah Perry.

Let's get to it.

Hey, guys.

Welcome to the Prepa Club Podcast.

My name is Savannah Perry and I am your host.

And thank you so much for listening.

Thanks for being here.

So I'm excited about today's episode.

Did you know that you can leave a voicemail for the podcast?

You may have known that.

You may not have known that, but if you didn't, it is possible.

So that link is in the description or it's speak pipe.com thepa platform.

So that's a great way to connect.

And hear your voice on the podcast.

If you want to.

And today's question comes from Jocelyn.

And I'll play that in just a second.

So, yeah, so that's something.

If you ever want to submit a question, feel free.

We would love to have you do that.

So I'm excited about today's episode because I haven't actually done a solo episode in a little bit.

We've been doing lots of interviews, which are great and I've enjoyed doing them.

But there are a few things that we'll talk about before we get to today's episode.

And I just want to let you know that these videos are on YouTube as well, and I'm bringing one back from the past that talks about why I decided to get married during PA school and goes into that a little bit more in depth.

So that'll be at the end if you want to keep listening and have more questions about that.

And then the beginning is more along the lines of when to have kids.

Kids during PA school or before PA school or after PA school.

Just when to have kids.

If you want to be a pa. How to put those two things together.

If you didn't know I had a baby a year ago.

So she's amazing.

All right.

I do want to mention my PA.

Resource as something you should know about.

A resource that should be in your toolbox because they only edit PA statements or pre PA statements for caspa.

If you are struggling with that, make sure you check them out.

Use the code Prepa Club for a discount.

And if you have any questions, let me know.

And then if you're starting PA school.

Soon, another resource you should know about.

Is called PA School Prep and that's an online course designed to help you succeed in the didactic year of PA school by preparing you in anatomy and physiology and med terms, which are kind of the basics and what you build upon and usually start with when it comes to PA school.

So check that out as well.

Paschoolprep.com and you can use the Code Prepa Club for a discount there too.

And that code works on the PA platform so we are just hooking you.

Up and if you run into any.

Issues please please reach out on Instagram or send me an email something along those lines.

Alright, let's hear our question from Jocelyn.

Hey Savannah, so my question is specific to females desiring to have kids.

When is the right time to have kids as a PA still fresh in the industry, to be specific, I'm 23 years old thinking that I won't be done with PA school around 26 or so.

My goal is to have maybe one kid by 30 and I kind of feel this pressure where I would like to get in this upcoming cycle, if not the next to school without impeding my work or anything like that.

I just don't know if this is something that should be even thought about or just kind of pursue my dreams as is and see what life happens and what makes of it.

Thanks.

Now this is a tough question, but I have some more recent experience with this since I have a newly turned one year old.

So let's talk about what you should be thinking about if you're concerned about whether or not you can become a PA and still have the life you're envisioning as far as having kids.

Now, I don't feel like this is a topic that is solely for females.

You know, if you are a guy in a relationship, married and your wife may be thinking about kids more than you are, or maybe you are too, it's okay to want to plan out your future.

I'm a very futuristic person.

I tend to plan and really think about things in advance.

So I'm with you if this is something that you are concerned about.

Now, there's a few things to consider.

First of all, and I think I learned this from personal experience, there's no good time to start a family and have kids.

You can plan it and think about it and things may not go the way you planned.

And also, you know something's always going to come up, it's going to be the next thing.

So you may have, you know, starting school, moving cities, getting a new job, getting a different job, someone's wedding vacation.

There's always going to be an excuse,.

And there's always going to be something else that could prevent you from starting a family.

Eventually, you kind of just have to make the decision that now is the time.

It's now or never.

Just go for it.

Now for a little background on me.

By the way, I'm Savannah.

If we've never met, from the PA Platform, if you've watched some of my videos or listened to some other podcasts, you've heard that I got married while I was in PA school.

And that's not something that's typically recommended, but to me, it was important.

This picture here, that's me and my husband.

We met in high school, went to the University of Georgia together.

We were both biology majors, and we got engaged right at the end of senior year.

Yeah.

And then we both started school, so I went straight to PA school.

He went to medical school for us.

We didn't want to wait 2, 4, 7, 8 years to get married until all of our training was done.

So that was another thing that we just had to make a decision.

And for us, that was to get married during school.

It meant we had a shorter honeymoon.

It meant that it was a little bit stressful, and I wasn't quite as involved in the planning as I wanted to be.

Thanks, Mom.

But for us, it just.

It made sense.

So we got married.

We were married for five years.

So I'm studying in my job.

My husband had finished med school, was in residency, and we started thinking about kids.

You know, when's the best time?

Do we wait until he's done with residency, but then.

Is he going to do a fellowship?

He's going to be starting a new job.

Is that a good time?

I'm in my job.

Is it okay?

I feel like I'm finally a stage established.

Is it okay for me to take a step back and take time off to be with a new baby?

And essentially, for us, we just decided that it probably was the right time and it wouldn't be perfect, but that would be okay.

And so last year around this time, I had a baby.

And I've learned a lot about the process.

So before we get into specifics of kind of when there's a few things.

So pregnancy teaches you that you are not in control of anything.

I mean, you can't predict if you're going to have an easy pregnancy or a difficult pregnancy.

Thankfully, I had a pretty easy one.

If anything, I was just a little bit tired.

No real morning sickness or anything as far as complications, and that was great.

I know people and friends who have been on bed rest since 24 weeks, you know, and that's a little bit more intense, have had their babies really early.

A lot of things can happen, and you kind of have to be willing to just let it go and trust that everything's going to be okay.

Which I think for type A personalities that tend to be PAs, that can be a little bit difficult.

And I definitely struggled with that and had some anxiety about that throughout my pregnancy.

But that being said, there are things involved with that that you can't control that may affect when you have a baby, depending on where you're at.

So that's just something to keep in mind.

All right, let's break down kind of your options.

So pre PA having babies before you start PA school, you know, that's a great option because like I said, pregnancy is unpredictable.

So that may give you some more freedom.

If something were to come up that you are able to adjust now, that may push your timeline for becoming a pa. And this is where you have to weigh pros and cons and priorities and figure out what's important to you.

I think there's this pressure to get everything done right at once.

You know, get married, have babies, be a pa, achieve your goals, do it all.

And sometimes that's not really realistic.

You have to take things step by step and really decide to you what's important, then make your list, go off of that list, and that's really all you can do.

Becoming a pa, if that is really your priority, you may need to put starting a family on hold because it may make it so you can't get all your classes done or you can't get all of your experience as quickly as you would want to to get into PA school.

So if you have babies beforehand, you take away some of that unpredictability and you may have some more time with them when they're super tiny, but that's not really when they're going to remember you either.

So then if you get into PA school when they're older, you may miss out on some things because PA school is hard, it's busy, it's rigorous.

If you talk to any new PA students who just started, let's say, in the last month or two, usually they are completely overwhelmed.

So imagine that and having a family.

Personally, I can't imagine having kids while I was in PA school.

I would have done it because that would have been my normal, but I don't know if it's something I would have actually chosen because it would definitely have been tough.

So pre pa, you can definitely consider having kids.

And then during PA school, you would need a ton of support.

So moving on to having kids in PA school, part of this is going to depend on your school setup and also how willing they are to work with you.

Some schools have very strict policies.

I mean, my school for an attendance policy, you could not miss class unless you had a doctor's note.

And even then it was very, very looked down upon.

That being said, I never missed a day of PA school.

So with pregnancy, I mean, there's a lot of appointments, you may not feel good.

And with that unpredictability, that may cause you to miss some class.

How your school would respond to that?

Not really sure.

They may ask you to take a leave of absence.

They may extend your time in the program.

There's a lot of different options.

If you go to the PA forums, there's some kind of stories there.

The PA Cafe is a blog specifically for PA moms and PA student moms, and we have an interview with the creator of that from a while back.

But that's a good place to check too, just to hear other stories of other people and see if you find something that you relate to.

But yeah, so having kids in PA school, no one in my class got pregnant or had babies while we were in school.

A girl in the class above me got pregnant while in rotations and actually was due the week after she took her pants.

So she graduated, took the pants or boards a week later, and then the week later had her baby, which is crazy.

And I remember talking to her about being on rotations because the expectations for her, even though she was very pregnant, were the same as any other student.

So in surgery, when you're standing for hours and hours and hours in a hot or with scrub on, you know, that could be tough being pregnant, but that's something that you've got to just take into account and be ready for if that's what happens.

There are some Instagram accounts of PA students who have had babies and just know that it's possible.

You know, you don't necessarily have to put that on hold.

You may just have to, again, adjust what you're doing.

Another option is to wait until after PA school when you're a PA like me.

And that's what most of my friends have done, too.

And, you know, right after PA school, we had just a bunch of weddings and Then a few years later, a bunch of babies.

And so we've had tons, tons of little PA babies since then.

And, you know, I wouldn't change anything about how I did things.

Maybe if anything, I would have her sooner because it seems like my baby has just been a part of our lives and I can't imagine her not being here.

So I love it.

And I don't know, they say parenthood changes you, and it's so true.

I mean, you don't know what it's like to be a parent or a mother until it happens.

And, you know, I was that person who was always like, I'm going to be ready to go straight back to work and I'm going to want the shortest maternity leave ever.

And you know what?

That wasn't true.

I wanted to to spend every single second with her.

And even now, when I get home, the first thing I want to do is give her a hug, which usually means chasing her down and hang out with her.

And so it's definitely something that you don't know how it's going to affect you.

You have to think also about finances in this and being financially stable.

I don't think babies are quite as expensive as everyone makes it seem like.

There are definitely ways to save money.

You can buy used stuff, there are lots of sales on diapers, all kinds of things that can help.

There are also a ton of gadgets.

And I have a true baby clothes addiction, so I'm probably not the best person to speak on that.

But there are options there.

And I think the other thing about having a baby, either in PA school or even as a working PA is you've got to have a plan in place for childcare and support.

So if something does happen, if your baby's sick, if your sitter cancels, what are you going to do?

I work as a dermatology pa and so having a busy clinic, it's difficult for me.

If I were to wake up and she has a fever, you know, I have 35 patients on my schedule.

That's tough to move everyone.

I absolutely would do it if I have to.

But thankfully I have parents and in laws who are willing to help out if something comes up.

So that's very, very, very helpful.

But something just, you have to think about.

There's a lot of things, you know, you just have to have an honest conversation and know that either whatever decision you make, it'll be the right one and it'll be fine and you'll have a sweet little baby who you love and that's all that really matters.

So you've got to decide what works best for you.

I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments and just shoot me a message on Instagram.

Let me know your thoughts and what you did.

If you have a story about how you became a parent during PA school or before or after, let's share it.

So I hope that was helpful and answered the question.

See you guys next time.

Alright, so that was the first part.

If you want to hear more about.

How I got decided to get married in PA school and how my wedding almost didn't happen, keep listening and we'll go into that.

Hey guys, Savannah here.

I wanted to do a video today just talking about something that I get asked about occasionally and something that sometimes I feel like people don't really want to ask about.

But why not?

So I am going to talk about how I got married during PA school.

So to give you a little background, I started dating my now husband in between senior year of high school and when we started college.

We went to the same university at the University of Georgia and we were both biology majors so we had a lot of classes together.

He helped me study and I helped him keep track of turning in assignments on time.

So it was kind of nice to have that built in study partner.

But by the time it came, by the time we applied for school, we've been dating for four years already and so we had started to talk about marriage and when we wanted to do.

That and how we were going to do that.

So come senior year we both applied to I applied to PA school and he applied to medical school.

So we applied at the same time.

He was given early acceptance to his top choice school at the Medical College of Georgia.

So that put a little bit of pressure on me to figure out if I was going to be able to go to school in the same town or if we were going to be separate for a couple years.

So I applied to all the schools in Georgia, wanting to stay kind of close hopefully, and I was accepted at two programs.

One of those was South University in Savannah, Georgia and it actually started in January and then the other one was thankfully Augusta University.

So I chose to attend Augusta University for a few reasons even though it started later.

I wanted to be near my future husband.

We weren't engaged yet though.

And then I also wanted to go to a state school because it was significantly cheaper.

I'll talk in another video about paying for PA school and what to look for in choosing a PA school, but really it would have been about four times as expensive for me to go to South University as compared to going to Augustine University.

So that just made sense to me and it had great resources.

I loved my program.

I'll talk about that later too.

But back on subject.

So we knew that we wanted to get married and I was very eager.

All my friends were getting engaged.

It felt like we've been dating forever.

And I really didn't want to have.

To about worry wait another two years for me to finish PA school and another four plus years for him to finish med school.

So we got engaged right before graduation and right before I started PA school.

And then we had to decide are.

We going to wait until I'm done to get married and wait, have a two year long engagement or are we going to get married while we're both in school?

Now PA programs will discourage this and I don't know if they all do, but for the most part they want your focus to be on school.

So I called my program the second I got engaged and I said I need to know our schedule for the next year.

And so they sent me the schedule and I looked and there was a week long break in May that both me and my fiance would have.

So we decided that we would get married during that break and so we started the, the wedding planning process.

So wedding planning during PA school is no joke.

It's really hard.

I was very lucky to have my mom who helped me a ton.

I would basically between the time we got engaged and I started school school, I was able to get the big stuff done.

The venue, the photographer, music, just kind of nailed those things down.

But when it came to details, I was not interested.

So the whole first and second semester of PA school, summer and fall semester, I wouldn't talk anything wedding.

So my mom would ask me a question and I would say, oh, it's fine, just, just do it, that's fine.

And I really, I kept all my focus on school, which is like I guess is a good thing, but I probably could have helped a little bit more during that time.

I was a little over overzealous there, but anyway, so come January, spring semester, my wedding was five months away.

And so it was time for me to start contributing a little bit more.

So at that point I felt confident in my study skills.

I knew what was expected of me in PA school.

I gotten a little more comfortable and so I was able to dedicate some time to working on the wedding, getting things planned, making a guest list, all of those fun things that are part of planning a wedding.

So the fact that we were both from the area made it a little more difficult because we knew a lot of people.

So we had.

We were planning a pretty big wedding, which was really fun.

So this.

So we decided we're having our wedding, whatever.

Come about March, the school went through a change.

So we had applied.

It was the Medical College of Georgia, and then it became Georgia Health Sciences University.

And then there was a new president and it became Georgia Regents University.

And then they decided they were combining with another school in town.

So we get an email that my friend who is sitting next to me showed me.

Danielle.

She was like, savannah, did you see this?

And she pulled it up and they had changed our schedule.

So the schedule that I had called about a year ahead of time that said I could get married during this week and be fine and go on a honeymoon and all that jazz, they changed it.

So we had booked our flights the day before for our honeymoon.

We had already planned for it to be a little bit short, just so that we could get back and get settled before we started back to school.

But I freaked out.

I remember that moment so well.

I was sitting in pharmacology.

I instantly, like, tears came in my eyes.

I started freaking out.

I was thinking, I'm gonna have to cancel my honeymoon.

What am I gonna do?

So right after class was over, I ran out of the room.

I went and spoke with one of the faculty members and kind of explained the situation to her.

And she was very reassuring and very kind and let me know that it would be okay.

She understood that this was something that we had planned ahead of time, that they would excuse that in this instance, because usually in PA school, you don't get sick days or vacation days.

You're expected to be there.

So that was a little bit stressful.

But I also probably overreacted in that scenario as well.

So that all went well.

And then May came and we got married.

My husband had.

He was a first year med student and he actually had his like final test of the year on the day of our rehearsal.

So he went in, took this big test and then came to rehearsal.

And then we got married.

So it was a little bit busy.

I think it's possible and it's doable if that's something that you're worried about with PA school or medical school.

You've just got to put.

Prioritize your time and know your.

Your priorities.

So that was what it came down to.

For me.

Getting married was very important to me.

And yes, becoming a PA was also important.

But that's not my whole life.

And so I think even if you're getting pressured from your school to wait, just look at your own motives and what you're capable of and see if it works for you.

We had a lot of other.

I mean, in our class, we had people.

We had some people who got married right before school started, before they even started PA school.

And then we had people who got married during rotations and then people who waited till right after school.

There were a ton of people that got married.

There were also some breakups.

So PA school can be rough on relationships.

I would say that first year when I was engaged, I was living at home and my fiance was living at home or with roommates, and we barely saw each other.

I mean, it would be like, hey, I'm at the library.

You want to come bring your lunch over here.

Okay.

It would.

I mean, we might would go to dinner once a week, if that.

We would study together.

But other than that, I mean, it wasn't.

We weren't just hanging out all the time.

So even if you have other stuff going on, it's important that you're putting the focus in that school requires so that you're able to succeed and just know it's possible.

So we also had people meet their spouses during PA school, so that was kind of fun, I guess.

One not regret, but I met three of my best friends in PA school, and luckily I was able to be involved in their weddings.

But looking back, I really almost wish I had have waited to pick my bridesmaids.

I love my bridesmaids, and y' all have still been in it, but I would have added them too.

Like, I'm.

I'm glad they were able to be at my wedding and experience it, but I kind of wish that I've been able to include them more, but I just didn't know them yet when I was making those decisions.

So that's one thing I guess I would change.

Yeah, I don't know if I'd change anything else.

I wish I could do it again.

My wedding was really fun.

I would totally get married again.

I don't know if my husband would stay the same, but yeah, I'll do another video about going through about what medical school is like as far as being a girlfriend, fiance, married, all that stuff.

And then probably another one is resident because they're just different.

But if anyone has any questions about what it's like to get married in PA school or medical school, let me know.

Feel free to shoot me an email.

My email is in the comments or in the description.

My email is in the description and you can leave a comment, give me a thumbs up if you like my videos and find me on Instagram at the PA platform.

Thanks guys.