Hannah Coleman with daughter Gracie and Julia Moore with daughter Margot, both instructing at a recent BASIC course.
Check out these two everyday superheroes! Hannah Coleman and Julia Moore with their gorgeous new bubbas at a recent BASIC course. Both Hannah and Julia took time away from maternity leave to help as instructors on the day.
Hannah reflects:
Julia and I were allocated the metabolic station - definitely required a quick deranged physiology review before attempting to teach on the topic!
Gracie had an absolute ball at the BASIC course. Her ICU Aunties, Dr Kelly Eitzen and Dr Priya Patel, helped entertain her while we taught. She joined in a few stations, had plenty to say about the matter and babbled over the top of some exciting sodium content. I had to feed her during one group, I figured if Jacinda could breastfeed in parliament then the metabolic station was free game.
I am new to motherhood and yet to return to work, but anticipate my imposter syndrome to potentially be worse on returning to the unit; I found it helpful to dip a toe back into thinking ICU thoughts and remain connected.
But things don’t always go perfectly to plan! Julia describes her experience as “only a partial success”. Julia continues:
The course ran into poor little Margot’s witching hour and we needed to make an early exit! But it was great to be involved and stay connected whilst I’m on mat leave.
It definitely takes a village and I’m very lucky to have friends and colleagues that were happy to help with the baby while I was teaching a couple of sessions.
It's actions like these that continue to change the future for women in Intensive Care for the better. We look forward to the day that photos like these are so common they no longer invite comment!