Being a Scientist Daddy

Part 1. Having a baby
During my PhD I ticked off three of the ‘big life events’. I got married, I bought a house, I had a baby. I was jokingly labelled as ‘a breeder’. I don’t think we talk enough about starting families as early career researchers, and over the coming weeks I want to share my experiences.

Here, I want to share my experience of having a baby as a PhD student, and then later again as a postdoc.

Baby A1
The start of my parenthood/PhD combination was relatively normal. Amelia was born as a healthy bundle of joy and our only woes were the usual worries around feeding and sleeping. My wife was on maternity leave, and I was able to continue my research as I had been. I worked early/late as required to get the lab work done and the papers written. I even went to sea for 7 weeks on a research cruise, travelling south to the Antarctic when my daughter was five months old. Although tough to be away, the busy schedule I made for myself made the time fly. It was certainly much harder for my wife who battled with a gruelling period of no sleep.  

Baby A1

On my return from the Antarctic however, things were to change. My wife was returning to work and I was now responsible for getting Amelia to and from nursery four days a week. I could no longer start and finish my work when I wanted, I couldn’t beat the rush hour traffic, I was bound to the nursery.
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This was a crucial time entering the third year of my PhD, getting the papers out, and  as much lab work done as I could. I had to learn quickly to schedule my work more efficiently, make full use of the one long day I had each week, and how to optimise the shorter hours I had in the lab. I was lucky to have a supportive supervisor and  graduate school to give me the flexibility I needed to succeed. However, I certainly felt the additional pressure of having to prove it would not affect my PhD outcomes and future career.
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​I didn’t allow having a baby to affect my work, and if anything, it forced me to focus on my research – it made me a better and more mature scientist and I thrived under the pressure. I enjoyed my research and family life.

Baby A1 upstaging me at graduation with an amazing outfit

Baby A2
​Four years later, and during my postdoc, I was to have another baby. Working for a different laboratory and PI but in the same school, I felt prepared for what was coming up and planned two weeks of paternity leave following the birth. Things didn’t go to plan though. Our second child, Alexander, was born very poorly and required intensive care for his first week of life.

I took an impromptu extra week of paternity leave, and used the flexibility of the job as we faced new challenges of building up his strength when he came out of hospital. Over the next year, and into the final year of my contract, we had several hospital admissions requiring overnight stays. As a parent this is a daunting experience, and to add to the mental exhaustion, I had to manage the expectations of an ambitious PI with limited funding remaining. Nothing was ever said, but I felt immense pressure to get big results, and they just were not coming.

Baby A2 being transferred to another hospital

My lab work was just not working, the methods kept failing on me, and I felt at times it was becoming more about method development and lab support. This was the realisation I wasn’t enjoying working to satisfy someone else’s research vision, and I didn’t feel like I had ownership over the work I was trying to do. I was losing motivation, and although that sounds depressing, it was the moment of clarity regarding my own research vision, and where I wanted to go with it.

Being a postdoctoral research assistant is an important part of getting to the fellowship and PI career stage, but if you don’t enjoy the research, the smallest personal hiccup will likely be amplified in the research outcomes later. Unfortunately, in the current climate not many of us get to be fussy about the research we do at this stage of our career, but it is important to get the most from it. I didn’t feel that I was.
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I see that first year of Alexanders life as a hugely influential time in my research career. I was very well supported by the university, peers, and my laboratory. I left the postdoc as a co-author on one paper, two other manuscripts in preparation, and tons of valuable experience. I have since developed fellowship proposals which I am genuinely excited by and reflect on my research interests.

That special moment a smiley face appears in the lab book!

​Having children as an early career researcher isn’t talked about enough. Some people have good experiences, others very negative, but it should not be something which prevents career progression in either parent. Communication with your PI and peers is key, and keeping the direction of the research vital to its success. You never know whats round the corner, unexpected life events happen but research is not always forgiving for the time required at home. For me, although it has been a challenge, having children has made me a better scientist. Alexander is now a healthy happy two-year-old with an amazing big sister in Amelia. I suspect more challenges await, but hopefully I will be better prepared than ever to tackle them. 

The Baby A's and me