New OB-GYN at Thompson hails from Canada, did missionary work in Kenya, Guatemala, Honduras. She shares her experience
By Chris Motola
Q: You’re originally from Canada. What brought you to the U.S.?
A: I’m originally from Canada and all of my family is still there, but I did all of my medical training in the U.S.
Q: Why did you decide to do your medical training here?
A: Initially I applied broadly for med school. I got in in the U.S. first. As I got into my training and decided I wanted to do OB, I looked at the practice differences between the U.S. and Canada. In Canada you’re treated more like a sub-specialist. Here you’re doing a little bit of everything like seeing patients for annuals, pap smears, managing pregnancies of all types. In Canada, you’re usually only seeing an OB if you’re a high-risk pregnancy, which I didn’t really love. I’ve never practiced in Canada, but a lot of the uncomplicated deliveries there are actually done by midwives. I like having both high- and low-risk patients.
Q: You graduated high-school at 16. Did you go right to college?
A: Yeah. So my schooling is a little unusual. I went to a private school and worked ahead. And then school was closing down, so my parents had to make the decision whether to put me into the grade that I was the right age for or the grade I’d completed the work for. So I started high school when I was 12 and then progressed from there. I graduated at 16, moved out, started undergrad, finished at 20, then moved to Virginia at 20 for med school. So I just kind of marched out from that early start to high school.
Q: How long have you been practicing?
A: I just finished my training in Buffalo; that was four years of residency. And this is my year out as an attending. So I’ve been practicing about five years.
Q: So you’re pretty young for a doctor.
A: Yes.
Q: What’s that like? Is it a culture shock?
A: A little bit. There’s a little bit of imposter syndrome, though I think a lot of attending physicians feel that way when they’re first starting out. So there’s a lot of finding your rhythm. I think in residency you’re used to just doing whatever the attending says versus now you have to speak up and use your own voice. So it’s been a change but it’s been good. It feels like my opinion is valued.
Q: So you’re probably younger than a lot of your patients.
A: Yes. Younger or the same age. It’s also cool, though, because I’m also pregnant right now. So a lot of my OB patients are coming in who are about my age and are about the same gestational age. So we’re growing babies together, we have the same symptoms. I think people also tend to be kinder to pregnant people, so I think it adds a personal touch. Patients ask me how I’m feeling, so there’s more of a sense of being involved in each other’s life. Another really cool thing is being able to grow with your patients. The one thing that I feel like I’m a lot more conscious of is when I’m seeing patients dealing with fertility issues while here I am pregnant. So I’m self-conscious of that.
Q: Is this your first child?
A: Yeah.
Q: How is pregnancy shaping your approach to obstetrics? Is it giving you a better idea of what to focus on?
A: I think it allows me to add a personal touch. I can talk about symptoms from experience. I think it also helps patients to know that I’m going through the same things. I think when talking about birth plans and stuff like that they want to know what I’m doing to compare notes.
Q: Can you talk a bit about your missionary work?
A: That was actually my first exposure to medicine and an OR [operating room]. My first was to Honduras with a team of pediatric cardiothoracic surgeons. I had no clue how to scrub in. I remember seeing a beating heart for the first time. It was crazy. That kind of set off my desire to get into medicine. Then I did a medical mission trip with my medical school to Guatemala in my second year. We were there for two or three weeks and I got to work in a few of the clinics. And then, right at the tail end of medical school, I spent a month living in Kenya. We kind of lived on the hospital grounds. The village was right across the street from the hospital. We woke up, worked, got to know the locals. I haven’t done anything since residency because the hours are so rigorous. Once I have this baby we’ll see what’s next.
Q: Did you get to see the OB-GYN practices of those countries?
A: Not so much in Guatemala, but in Kenya I kind of focused on it. It was shocking. Their OR is completely different. Their labor wards are really just one big room with all the patients lined up in their beds. You’ve got patients walking through these wards. They don’t do continuous fetal monitoring. The practice is just very different. The vaginal deliveries are mostly done by nurses. The physicians do the sections, but their medical training process is very different. I remember having to push a patient from the labor ward down a gravel path to the OR. All the outcomes I was involved in were great, though.
Lifelines
Name: Lydia Morrison, DO
Position: OB-GYN physician at Thompson Health Canandaigua Medical Group
Hometown: Barrie, Ontario
Education: Liberty University College of Medicine, Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine. residency, University at Buffalo (Catholic Health System), Buffalo
Affiliations: FF Thompson Hospital
Organizations: American College of Osteopathic Obstetricians and Gynecologist; American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists
Family: Married, child on the way
Hobbies: Travel, boating, following the Toronto Maple Leafs or the Buffalo Bills