Hi there,

I have done this! I did 3 years full time and then had a baby (I deferred for a year) I went back part time and three years on I am still trying to finish it. It is really hard being a mum and trying to do a Phd. I would say you would be better to wait until until you are done and dusted with your Phd. even if you got pregnant close to the end of the Phd , you may have all the morning sickenss to deal with which can take tolls on energy levels and productiveness etc which is something to keep in mind! Good luck!

Although I can't comment personally, I have 2 professor friends who both had babies while doing their PhDs. As I say they're now both (*very* well respected) professors, so it hasn't damaged their academic progression at all.

They both did their PhDs back when there was much less time pressure, but it's definitely doable, and as I think others have said, if you feel it's the right time, then go for it!

Good luck! x

So I am expecting my first baby early July and likely starting a PhD somewhere in October. From what I've understood, got advice and everything....everyone is different. Its depends on your baby and you and the support you have. There is never a right time and getting pregnant is not a planned thing. It can takes years or bang right away. The key I have picked up so far is be incredibly organised, diciplined and do what you know works for you. Are you a night owl, read and make notes of articles, ebooks on your iPad whilst baby is sleeping there next to you in the moses basket. Have a journal/diary where you write down your progress every few days/weeks!


Good luck and if you want to have a baby whilst doing the PhD GO for IT!!! Good luck xxx

I appreciate people sharing their experiences on here, and don't doubt that having a baby while trying to finish your PhD is really tough.

But I think it is really tough at any time, and at least when you are doing a PhD you can extend the time you spend working on it (and funders will let you take maternity leave, give you maternity pay and pause your funding until you start work again). This is also true of some of the most sought after postdocs where you chose your own project (i.e. British Academy & Leverhulme in the humanities). On my current three year contract I am entitled to maternity leave and pay, but my contract is due to end on a certain date and will end then whether or not I'm on maternity leave (and because I won't be able to go back to work for three months because of the contract ending I'm not entitled to the university's enhanced maternity pay). Most of my friends are on one-year or even only nine-month contracts so they have no chance of maternity pay - I'm comparatively lucky. However, then I won't be "in post" when applying for new jobs and getting a new position is always more difficult in that situation. I also now have a lot less freedom to arrange my own time than I did as a PhD student. I have two misogynistic bosses who I am sure are going to react with hostility when I tell them I'm pregnant as they will just see it as threatening their project (even though the research council will provide money for them to get cover).

As I've said before, I think there is no right time careerwise (and that's not just confined to academia). Academia has the potential to be family friendly (flexible hours, home working etc.) but is so competitive that in reality it isn't!

Well I can honestly say I would not be able to have had a baby and done my PhD, so hats off to those that can!

This topic has been active quite a while ago but there's still something that doesn't really give me peace of mind and I thought I might share it with you and ask for opinions.

As I said, I'd like to have a kid but I can also wait, I still have time as I'm 'only' turning 25 soon. I am just wondering what is perhaps the most convenient time (I know there is no best time!) for a baby in order not to loose too many opportunities in terms of career in academia (social sciences to be precise). I was thinking to have a kid shortly before my scholarship runs out which would give me additional 6 months of extended and fully paid scholarship. Sometimes people do take more than 3 years to finish their PhDs which would mean I am not that far behind others (my progress is very good so far). Of course as you see I am optimistic but that's just me - always see the bright side:) I could finish my PhD a semester or two later and start a job straight afterwards (hopefully!). On the other hand, I could wait until I finish my PhD, get a job, and after a first 6 months of being in a job get pregnant. I am just wondering which option seems 'best' in terms of developing a career. I may be wrong but I have an impression that the first option will work better, but then... I am afraid ... I've always dreamt of working as an academic and don't want too have a baby too early if it's gonna lower my prospects - I can wait a year or two. But will the university be happier if I wait? Or will it work better if I try to do it now? Recently these thoughts are on my mind all the time!

Hi Annabelle, you may have seen my earlier post on how to cope with a PhD and baby. I think there are two sides you need to take into account here: The career perspective and the actual managing the PhD perspective.

Career perspective: I think having a baby right in the middle of a PhD is the best time (I am in my second year). I have done enough good work to have built good credibility with my supervisors and enjoyed all the flexibility of time to do teaching and get involved in lots of work etc. The PhD topic has been finalised and the lit review is taking shape so after coming back from mat leave you've got something to work with. After my PhD I doubt that anyone will question why it has taken me one year longer, i.e. you don't have to explain it was ML. Everyone understands a PhD can take longer than 3 years.

Managing the PhD perspective: OMG...I had no idea what torture it could be to not sleep for months :p Pregnancy/baby brain is still full on, but it is getting better. You have to be super disciplined and go to bed early to "sleep when the baby sleeps" cause otherwise you might end up going to bed at 11pm/12am just to find that baby decided to have enough sleep after 3am and wants to eat/play/poop/... I've come to the realisation that I wouldn't be able to meet the same expectations like before. I've got a baby now, all I can do is give it my best shot. You will find that people without kids don't understand what it means to have a baby (although most people think they do and tbh I was just like that before I had a baby). A child really turns your world upsidedown, but for nothing in this world would I change my little baby! Being a parent is the most rewarding thing you can do.

... most important thing is to accept that things won't go according to plan or that family life/ work life is always "perfect". If you can do that or are willing to embrace the chaos then by all means go for it!

However, do consider to create a strong support network around you: Have you got affordable childcare? Can you afford childcare at all? Have you got family around you? Have you got friends with children (not the kind of friends who will tell you everything is "easy and perfect", more the honest kind of friends that you can talk to when things get tough)? Does you partner help in the house (I am all for equality between men and women but 'mums' do end up doing the chunk of work baby related so it would be great if your hubby is hands on).

Hope this helps x

Thanks AnnJolie, I guess that's what I wanted to hear. I know it's not going to be easy but I assume it won't be any easier in two years time when I (hopefully!) work at the university trying to show them what a great academic I am:)
I am seriously starting to think that it will be better to plan a baby right now - before I am done with my degree. I'm quite excited to be honest! x

Hi Annabelle,

As someone who's not a mum, but is constantly thinking about the PhD/baby conundrum, I wanted to share with you how I feel. I contributed to this same thread before and have done some thinking since then.

I'm turning 30 next year and am hoping to finish my PhD at the end of next year. For me, the bottom line is that if you really feel the urge to have a baby, just go for it. As another poster said, only you know when you and your partner are ready.

For me personally, my husband and I really want children but neither of us have the strong urge to have them in the next year or so. We talk about babies A LOT but we do like it being just the two of us for a bit longer. I worry about it getting more difficult to conceive with every passing year but I'm not about to rush into having a baby for the sake of my potentially elderly ovaries. At the end of the day, it's your choice. I feel like women in academia are already under so much pressure, it's a shame that we're made to feel so neurotic about a natural process! (not calling you neurotic, more calling myself that)

You can't know what's going to happen in the future, either with conception, pregnancy, the baby, or your career. Whatever you decide, you made that decision in good faith with the knowledge you had available at the time. Don't have any regrets, or become 'Captain Hindsight'! (what I call my friends who say "oh you should have done this...")

Best of luck, and keep us updated!

I would not wait until you are 6 months in job. If you hire someone and the person is "immediately" on maternity leave this is often badly received by others. As if you were just waiting to have the position secure to drop out.
I think it is hard to make a good timing as an academic but probably the PhD is the better option.

I think it is not just women specific (pregnancy ofc but not the issue in general). I don't like it that academia is always presented as this boys club that is specifically discriminating women. It is more a general discrimination of people who are not 110% commiting to academia. This affects women more often but try to work part time to support your working wife with the kids as a man or try to avoid a 70h week and you get exactly the same incomprehension.
As as there are enough women and men willing to work 24/7, people who can't will be discriminated. No matter if it is because they get pregnant or because of any other reason. Don't wanna trivialize the issue but I think this is a general problem in academia and also companies for men and women.

Sometimes this is unavoidable. What's a girl to do, be unemployed and have a baby, or have a baby whilst employed so they can get maternity leave and annoy their employer? It's a no-brainer for me.

I don't really want to turn this into a discussion on gender bias and sexism in academia... but, there is evidence (take a look at the People Science and Policy report by the RSC from 2009 for data) that women, across all subjects (i.e. not just the men dominated areas) are discriminated against when it comes to promotion. You just have to look at the numbers of women professors across all subjects, which is consistently at about 10%. Are you really suggesting that only 10% of women academics warrant professorships because the others are not working hard enough?

Going back to the issue of getting pregnant while trying to forge a career in academia, well I've seen it go both ways... one of my best friends was doing her PhD in Cambridge (unfunded) while doing her PhD. She was really sick during the pregnancy and had to go on leave of absence. She has never been able to return to her PhD studies after a really bad bout of post natal depression following a difficult premature birth, but she adores being a stay at home mum and now has two gorgeous boys that are an absolute credit to her and her husband.

On the other hand, I know a few people who were on funded PhDs who took maternity leave and have come back to finish now their babies are a bit older. The babies are in nursery a few mornings a week so they ca come to the office and are both due to finish up pretty soon. I don't think it's been easy at all, but they're managing and having a baby to take care of outside of the PhD gives them joy and happiness and a different focus.

Well, first of all there is definitely increase in positions hold by females (at least in Germany). Almost every position in academia has now the add on that female applicants are preferred in case of equal qualification. The problem is simply that for a lot of "feminists" this is not fast enough. They want 50/50 NOW and won't be satisfied if the increase is just 1 to 2% per year. In my opinion this is not gender equality (where everybody has the same chance to get the position regardless of gender) but equalization. It just takes time to raise the numbers from 10% (actually I read that there are 17.5% in the UK at the moment, not sure if that is correct). There are not so many new professorships so either we stop hiring males for the next 10 years or we accept that this will take time and the old, ever-sexist dinosaurs in academia are not going to live forever. Even female nobel laureates like christiane nüsslein-vollhard say that the unequal numbers are not only a result of discrimination but also of the fact that women often aim for different things. Academia was never the place were you could work part-time or care for a family. Most of the male scientists with permanent positions do very little about their kids or the household. They just have a wife who does it and that was my main point. Academia immediately discriminates everyone, regardless of gender if he or she can't give the 110%. In the institute I was before, there was a really good post doc with a great publication record that got offered a group leader position (tenure track) abroad and in the end she turned it down because her (female !) "bosses" communicated that it is not enough to work just 45 hours a week (because of small children that you want to see from time to time). I don't believe that it is still so much sexism, it is more that the things academia demands are completely contradictory to what most women want. I know several female PIs and those are the kind of workaholics, who you write an email during their holidays without expecting anything back soon and you get a response 5 mins later, even in late hours. There are maybe just fewer "freaks" among women that are willing to work an enormous amount of time and to subordinate everything else to make a career in academia happen. One of my male friends in a company who recently became a dad had serious trouble when he wanted to stay 6 months at home to care for the kid so his girlfriend could start working again after her break. The boss already communicated that this will cost him a promotion. He will do it anyway. There are just assholes out there who will punish every inconvenience you cause, no matter if it is justified or not.

I don't want to neglect that there is still sexism out there, I just don't think that this is still THE huge problem. I think if the Tim Hunt debate showed one thing then that scientists and universities can't afford to be sexist anymore ;)