“The guards were not missed”

Family reconciliation and the conception of new maternities have meant efforts that, over the years, have generated a favorable evolution although still insufficient In the current National Health System (SNS). Although new laws have been achieved in terms of Maternity and Breastfeeding Permitsthere is a way to go from the administration to allow couples best possibilities to divide their times and attend to their children.

24 -hour guards are the meeting point between the past, the present and the future, in challenge format. “I had My first child being R4. The stop to make guards was regular and when you were pregnant You threw with the 24 hours and without riding. “Thus recalls that time a head of pediatrics service of a hospital in the Community of Madrid, from which at least 20 years have passed.” The woman He made guards until the end of his pregnancyexcept low, “he details Medical writing.

The breastfeeding period was not regulated either and the reduction of the working day due to the care of the children was not “well seen.” “I did not have these facilities,” he says, highlighting the advances that have arisen with the new laws, although It still remains to improve. “In other works as soon as you are pregnant they adapt the position, they facilitate you a lot, as doctors do not. Until the WEEK 24 GUARDS And that is something that would have to improve, “he highlights.

Family support is and has always been key. In their case, with a couple of the same profession, they found them very difficult to achieve conciliation. “What happened to us was that there were times when the guards agreed, nobody changed it to us and if you have no family support, you don’t know what to do with your son or your children,” he says.

It was precisely that situation that led them to Galicia with the intention of looking for work, although No better results. Already with two children, he opted to work in a health center in the morning and without guards. “I left my job to be, in this case woman, the one that reconciled. He had that ease because he was a pediatrician and the pediatricians can go to primary care, “he says. Thus, when his children grew up, After five years And back in Madrid he resumed his working life in a hospital ” The difficulties that generated studying, keeping up, guards. ”

The guards, the challenge of motherhood

By his experience and although he no longer has young children, he considers that – in the present – the main administration challenge is in the guardsespecially during the gestation period. “I would remove 24 -hour guards from pregnant women from the moment they are. That is absolutely unhealthy“, thinks the head of pediatrics service.

“I am a single mother of two children,” another pediatrician tells this newspaper. Her little ones are 6 and 3 years old and although the rules of the game have changed for the current single -parent families, she did not enjoy certain benefits that it stands out as necessary. “I just had the casualty 16 weeks And I could not join because I asked for a leave to take care of the child, without having salary during those three months, “he says.

Now you have one 10 percent reduction of the day to take them to school in the morning, although “most complicated” They are still the guards. “I have to organize among nannies, sometimes a relative, a friend who throws a hand, but is very complicated because They are 24 hours And the price of the guards is quite low. It is almost the same as I pay to the person who comes to stay with the children, “he laments. And the conciliation remains an yearning that is not yet achieved.” It is practically impossible to reconcile Having these guards who are mandatory until 55, who are also poorly paid, but that are mandatory, “he insists.

Support of work teams

These days are the meeting point for each of these doctors, who despite having a different family situationthey agree that these are mainly an obstacle to cope with motherhood and couple life.

Another of the specialists, who has also asked to maintain his anonymity, distributes the schedules with his partner to take care of his 16 -month -old girl. With a reduction of the day that allows you to have Less guardstry to organize time although It limits family life. “To sleep it we have to be and that tries, to get rid of the day I have a guard, but, of course, we don’t see each other,” he says. Despite the flexibility that your partner has to adapt their schedules to the girl’s requirements, the possibilities they have to share between them at this stage are very few.

However, both pediatricians They value the good disposition from their teams to lend them a hand. “He is very dependent on the service in which you work because in the end I am a mother Does not have to affect my partner. If he helps me voluntarily, well, but you cannot demand that it help you because the decision to be a mother has been mine, “highlights the first one; while the second, highlights the help they lend to each other, although” with the guard system You can do little“.