‘Choose family or a profession – you can’t do both’: Adelaide doctor defies rules of her time to inspire generations

Matriarch medico Helen Roxburgh was told to choose between becoming a doctor or being a mum. Thankfully, she didn’t listen.

Matriarch Helen Roxburgh with doctor daughters Emily and Fleur and grandchildren Harriet, 2, Hugh, 9 and Abbi, 11. Picture: Kelly Barnes

At medical school in the 1970s, Helen Roxburgh was unmistakeable amid her peers – along with her stethoscope, scrubs and anatomy textbook she also had a breastfeeding bub.

Today, the trailblazing mum-of-four who was instrumental in establishing GP Obstetric Shared Care in South Australia – which allows public patient pregnant women the option of seeing her general practitioner throughout most of the pregnancy – recalls being “terrified” her firstborn would start crying during lectures.

Among the first intakes of students at Flinders University’s medical school, she faced criticism by “a cohort of professors and lecturers with traditional values who thought it was absolutely terrible … that I should either choose family, or a profession, not do both”.

“At that time I was thinking, ‘should I keep on going or should I stop?’ … it wasn’t very usual for people to have babies while they were doing degrees.

“But I decided there was no harm in keeping on going, and seeing how it went; I used to take her to my lectures and that was pretty stressful … I’d be at the back of the lecture theatre and absolutely terrified she would start crying.

“I certainly got some flak from some but there was also a young cohort of professors … (who were) a lot more accepting.

“There weren’t too many childcare centres around at that time but fortunately Flinders Uni did have one.”

As a student doctor, Helen Roxburgh was told to choose a profession or motherhood. She is pictured her with her firstborn, Emily.

Baby Emily Roxburgh celebrates her first day at childcare at Flinders Uni.

Now 72, the matriarch medico remains committed to her profession and inspiring a new generation of family physicians – including in her own family – to share in the joy of being able to help people in her local community.

“I love being a GP,” says Dr Roxburgh, who has run Belair Medical (where doctor daughters Emily and Fleur also work) for the past 35 years.

“To me, the best part is the diagnosis; getting to look at all the bits of a puzzle and working out what is wrong with people.

“In general practice you see some really amazing textbook conditions, straight off the street ... you get the ‘first go at the pie’ which other specialities don’t”.

She chose to pursue medicine as a “mature-age student”, aged 26, after first qualifying interstate as a dietitian.

She and dentist husband, Phil, discovered they were expecting their first child, Emily, just before she started – they’d later welcome daughters Sophie and Fleur and a son, Will.

The student doctor kept baby Emily with her for the first six months, later putting her in the campus childcare, heading over to it in her breaks from class to breastfeed.

Sophie arrived in fifth year.

Dr Helen Roxburgh’s student card while studying medicine at Flinders. Picture: Kelly Barnes

“It was a struggle in the early days, (as mum medicos) we really did have to be superwomen … 14-hour shifts in emergency as interns,” she says.

“When I did my (Diploma of Obstetrics & Gynaecology), I had to sleep in the hospital one every three nights … my husband used to bring our baby down to be breastfed before bedtime.

“I also recall being attached to a vascular unit and the particular person in charge wrote in my report ‘obviously has other interests, such as family’ … I’m still annoyed about that; nobody would ever get away with saying that these days.

“There was also a young junior doctor who insisted on making hospital ward rounds at 6.15pm at night which was impossible when you had children to pick up from childcare.”

Emily was the first to follow in her mother’s professional footsteps, graduating from medicine in 2005 on the back of an arts degree.

Emily Roxburgh was the first of her siblings to train as a doctor, pictured with mum Helen. Picture: Keryn Stevens

Asked to share her earliest, proudest memories of her mum, she replies: “I just remember her juggling … being mum and caring for us – and working.

“I am baffled as to how she did it, to be honest (but) she had a pragmatic approach to childcare.

“As a 12-year-old, I’d go along with her to Modbury Hospital when she was doing a night shift in obstetrics to look after my baby brother, Will, while she worked – I’d just sleep on the floor next to him,” she says.

“(Her work) was just woven into our lives in a very matter of fact way, it was just part of who she was and what she did … always a part of her story.

“Her role modelling as a working mother of four was pretty incredible, so too her long-lasting passion for (her work).”

Dr Helen Roxburgh at her graduation with the eldest of her children Emily, then seven.

Emily says connection and “people’s stories” are her favourite part of the GP gig.

“I love seeing people I have been seeing for 10 years … walking with them through some of the most challenging things in their lives,” the 44-year-old mum of two says.

“There is a humility to being a general practitioner … a lot of good general practice is invisible.”

In addition to her work as a GP, Emily fills dual roles at the Women’s and Children’s Hospital where she is both a GP liaison and integration consultant and consulting doctor with the child and adolescent virtual service.

Youngest sister Fleur, 36, graduated from medicine in 2015 after first studying law.

The mum of one says she loves the flexibility and variety that comes from life as a GP, including not knowing “what is coming in the door” on any day.

Her waiting room might consist of a mixture of eating disorder patients, mums with bubs needing their immunisations or “picky-eater” toddlers, perimenopausal women, domestic violence victims, elderly couples seeking a care plan, those with chronic illness – and everything in between.

“Every day is different, every combination of patients in a day presents a unique challenge,” she says, frustrated local doctors can be undervalued.

“There are people who think we just do scripts and referrals … but GPs can make a huge difference in people’s lives; I feel privileged to treat people and help when they are at their most vulnerable.

”You could ask lots of GPs and they’d tell you they’ve cried with patients when they’ve had to tell them something horrible … we actually really care about our patients.”

It’s this interaction with patients she enjoys most.

Three generations of the Roxburgh family … including Fleur on the left with her daughter budding young medico Harriet. Picture: Kelly Barnes

“The thing I love most is building relationships with patients and the fact that I see kids and I see their parents and I see their grandparents,” Fleur says.

“I think that continuity of care is so special because you really get to be involved with patients across their lives … it is not just seeing them for a snapshot moment in time like you do if you are a non-GP specialist.

“If you ask Mum, she treats adults now that she looked after when they were aged two, three and four … I do really remember growing up, Mum loving her work; she loved it, she was so passionate.”

And what of a third generation of Roxburgh women doctors?

Fleur laughs: “Harriet (who’ll be three in September) is very cute, she knows I am a doctor and that I help people and will ask ‘Mummy, who will you help today?’”