Fidelma O'Mahony
Consultant Gynaecologist and Obstetrician
Honorary Professor of Clinical Education and Gynaecology
UHNM Hospital Dean for Keele Medical School
I love hearing women’s stories and I love the combination of medicine and surgery that O&G offers. It is an amazing privilege to be present at a baby’s birth and to be able to contribute to a safe delivery of a baby where mum and baby’s wellbeing is at risk is one of the best parts of my job.
In gynaecology helping to improve women’s quality of life by working with them to manage areas of health such as incontinence, pelvic floor problems and menopause is really rewarding.
We have one of the top medical schools in the country here at Keele. It is something that all staff at UHNM should be proud off because the experience students get in our hospital is a major reason for the school’s top rating. It is really fantastic to then go forward and work with trainee doctors and consultants who were our medical students in the past. Also, it is so important working with the university to widen participation in medicine among students at our local schools here in Stoke on Trent.
There have been challenges along the way and certainly when I started my far fewer women chose surgery. Apart from the physical demands of the job it was inevitable that we faced a degree of scepticism towards our clinical ability. This was often difficult to challenge but for me it did strengthen my resolve to succeed and now thankfully it is a very rare occurrence. I am very proud to support women in all branches of medicine in surgery in particular.
To other women…I feel women should believe in themselves.. Find out about the career you want.. make sure you know your rights and join forces with others to empower yourselves to achieve your goal.. remember our greatest regrets are the things we don’t do!