Pros
Meaningful work serving women and families in a rural community. Many providers and frontline staff genuinely care about patients and work incredibly hard with limited resources. The patient population and fellow coworkers were often the brightest part of the job.
Cons
Working for Women’s Health under Holy Cross Hospital as a pregnant employee and postpartum mother was one of the most emotionally exhausting experiences of my career. What was most disappointing was not the work itself or the patients — it was the lack of support from leadership, management, and HR during one of the most vulnerable seasons of my life. As someone working in women’s healthcare, I expected more understanding surrounding pregnancy, breastfeeding, postpartum recovery, childcare, and the realities many mothers face. Instead, I often felt scrutinized, dismissed, and unsupported. There was little meaningful support for breastfeeding or pumping as a working mother, despite working in a field centered around caring for women and babies. Conversations around accommodations and leave frequently felt adversarial rather than collaborative. I spent an incredible amount of time navigating stressful meetings, constant emails, and pressure surrounding attendance, scheduling, and leave while also trying to recover physically and care for my children. What leadership especially failed to recognize is that rural healthcare challenges do not only affect patients — they affect employees too. Many of us are living the same realities as the community we serve. In Taos, childcare is limited, reliable transportation can be difficult, resources are stretched thin, and families are often balancing impossible schedules just to survive. The ecosystem here is delicate, and healthcare workers are not immune to those struggles simply because we work in medicine. As a single mother co-parenting long distance while raising a baby, I needed understanding, flexibility, and humanity. Instead, I often felt like my circumstances were treated as an inconvenience. The disconnect between the mission of women’s healthcare and the way pregnant/postpartum employees are actually supported internally was heartbreaking. There are incredible providers and staff members doing deeply meaningful work within the clinic, but leadership culture matters. Women’s healthcare organizations should be leading the way in supporting mothers and families — not contributing to the burnout of the very women holding the system together.