Ep 310: What I’m Thankful For After 20+ Years as an OB-GYN

Nicole Rankins (00:04.204)

With Thanksgiving around the corner, I am taking you inside what I'm truly grateful for. My health, my family, my skills as an obstetrician, the colleagues and nurses I work with, and of course, you. This episode is a moment to pause, breathe, and reconnect with what's carrying you through this season.

Nicole Rankins (00:38.263)

Hello there, welcome to another episode of the podcast. This is episode number 310 and whether this is your first time listening or you've been here before, I am so glad you're spending some time with me today. This week is Thanksgiving here in the US and every year around this time, I take a moment to really sit with what I'm grateful for, not the surface level list we all rattle off, but the deeper,

lived gratitude that shapes how I move through the world as a woman, a mother, and an OB-GYN. So today I want to share some of what's on my heart, the things I don't always pause and say out loud. And I hope as you listen, you are inspired to think about what's grounding you, sustaining you, and carrying you into this next season of your life. So let's get into it.

All right, first up, I wanna name something that I do not take for granted, my health. I am 51 years old and I have been practicing obstetrics for over two decades. I have worked more 24 hour shifts than I can count. I've stood at bed sides for births that have gone beautifully and births that have turned harrowing.

in a matter of seconds and through all of that my body has been here for me. Is it perfect? No, no it's not. Sometimes my knee bothers me or my GI system goes all wackadoodle when I get stressed. But my body is strong, my body is resilient, my body is flexible. Like seriously, I'm very flexible. You should see my yoga poses y'all. And it allows me.

to move through my life with purpose. And the older I get, the more I appreciate it. Now, one of the reasons I will never hide my age is because I know every single year is a gift. Losing my dear older sister, Patrice, to cancer when she was just 46 brought that into crystal clear focus for me. She didn't get the privilege of growing older.

Nicole Rankins (03:06.118)

I do and I honor that every single day. And I'm learning to be grateful not only for what my body does, but for what my body lets me do. Be present for my daughters, my husband, my family, care for women and labor and birth and create this platform.

I'll tell you, taking care of pregnant women for a living can make you hyper aware of both the fragility and the strength of the human body. And being 51 with a body that still carries me and still looks pretty damn good, I will say, is not something I am skipping past. I am thankful. I am deeply thankful.

Okay, next up, and honestly, this is always at the top of my list, is my family. I have two amazing daughters. My 32 week preemie, who spent a month in the NICU, had a congenital malformation called duodenal letresia, repaired three days after birth. She is in college now. She is a brilliant child who has never made it be in her life, almost perfect SAT score.

She just turned 18 and it blows my mind that I have a whole adult child y'all and watching her grow into her own, make her own choices, navigate her own joys and challenges has been one of the most profound privileges of my life. And my younger daughter, she's incredible too.

Now she hates this, I tell her she has a future as like the next Martha Stewart or Marie Kondo combined. She is the most organized person I know. She spends like two hours on Sundays preparing her lunch for the week with things like homemade hummus and roasted sweet potatoes and chickpea salad. And she makes these aesthetically pleasing food options like yogurt bowls with her own homemade granola.

Nicole Rankins (05:25.81)

She gets up to do yoga before she goes to school in the morning and her style is impeccable. And of course, on top of that, she's an incredibly smart straight A student. She keeps me learning and I say she is who I want to be when I grow up. And then of course there's my husband Falcon. Falcon and I are approaching 20 years of marriage. 20 years. That ain't small. We have grown together.

We have changed together. We have raised children together. We have built and rebuilt dreams together. And being married to someone who supports my mission, who supports me, who stands beside me, even when I'm tired or unsure.

or navigating a tough shift. I have definitely called him at three o'clock in the morning after a difficult outcome. That is a blessing that I acknowledge every single day. And as I look ahead to our 20th anniversary in a few weeks, I feel grateful for a partnership that has weathered seasons, celebrated milestones, and truly strengthened over time.

Now we're not perfect in our house by any chance, we're pretty damn good, okay? Growing up, we've always eaten dinner together as a family every night. We love each other, we laugh, and I am truly, truly grateful for that.

All right, now I want to talk about something that I don't always say out loud because humility is important in medicine, but confidence and gratitude are important too. And I am very thankful for my skills as an OBGYN because they're exceptional, okay? After more than 20 years, I can handle the vast majority of things that come my way in labor and birth.

Nicole Rankins (07:30.741)

I can safely manage vaginal breech births. I can do difficult C-sections. I understand how to support a woman who wants to have a trial of labor after a cesarean, wants to be back. And I do that with respect and with evidence. I know how to use vacuum assistance skillfully when it's needed to help facilitate a vaginal birth and avoid a C-section. I'm comfortable supporting

unmedicated birth in whatever position a woman's body leads her into. I know how to use intermittent monitoring appropriately. I support a woman if she wants an elective c-section just because she wants the c-section because she feels like that's what's best for her. I practice good evidence-based medicine and these aren't just technical skills. These are tools that allow me to practice the kind of patient-centered care that I truly

Believe it. Now, of course, I am not perfect. No physician is, no human is, but I am seasoned, I am steady, and I trust myself. And that trust lets me show up with calm energy, especially when things get intense. Remaining calm under pressure is actually a superpower of mine. And I'm grateful for the years of training, the mentors.

the on the job experiences and the countless families who have trusted me with their care. Those experiences truly shaped the doctor and the woman and the human that I am today and I'm grateful.

All right, I gotta tell you, I am also incredibly thankful for the colleagues and nurses that I work with every day. You've heard me say this before, birth is not a one person event. Birth is a team effort. And I have been fortunate to work alongside physicians who are not only skilled, but who are also kind and good human beings. Colleagues who practice patient centered care.

Nicole Rankins (09:45.351)

colleagues who respect women listen to them and Treat them with dignity and the nurses. Let me tell you something labor and delivery nurses are the backbone of maternity care They are patient advocates They are sharp. They are intuitive. They too can be steady under pressure. They catch those early warning signs they support

Families, they support physicians, they keep labor and delivery units running. And I have worked with some phenomenal nurses throughout my career. So right now I am deeply grateful to be where I am surrounded by nurses who genuinely care about women and families and colleagues who also support the mission of providing patient-centered care. You can feel that energy on our unit.

Nicole Rankins (10:47.448)

Okay, and of course, next up, I am grateful for this podcast and this platform. But before I even talk about the podcast itself, I need to say this. I am thankful for you. The fact that you show up week after week, that you trust me with your birth preparation, that you listen while you're driving or folding laundry or

walking the dog or washing dishes. It means more than you know. You are the reason that this platform matters so deeply in my heart. You're the reason this work has impact and you're the reason I keep going even when I get tired at times. Every week I get to sit down in my home office, I turn on this microphone.

and I talk to you, share evidence-based information, break down myths, offer tools, tell stories, and hopefully make you feel calmer and more empowered as you go into your birth. And this whole platform started because I wanted a way to share evidence-based information. And I was finding blogging hard, yes, that old-fashioned blogging from back in the day.

And I am a true kind of podcast junkie. I got started listening to podcasts by listening to serial season one. If you've never listened to serial season one, it is some of the best podcasting that has ever been done. So I highly recommend it.

And after listening to cereal, said, hmm, I wonder how hard it is to start a podcast. And turned out it actually isn't that hard to do a podcast. And this has grown into something I genuinely never expected. Nearly three million downloads, global listeners, incredible guests, and a community of women who show up week after week. And I'm just grateful.

Nicole Rankins (13:01.73)

because this platform lets me do something that goes far beyond the hospital and the bedside. It allows me to educate at a much larger scale and to shift culture and to influence how women think about their birth experience, how you think about your birth experience, and it helps you feel more confident, more prepared, and more empowered. I don't take that lightly.

And for that, I am grateful.

Nicole Rankins (13:36.886)

And then the last thing that I want to name that I am grateful for is humility. I'm grateful that after over 20 years in this work, I know when to ask for help. I know when to pause. I know when to change course. I know when to admit that I have made a mistake.

And humility is what keeps me grounded. Humility keeps me learning new things and evolving. And then most importantly, would say is that humility helps keep women safe, both safe physically and safe mentally. And there's a difference between confidence and ego. Confidence says, I trust my skills.

Ego says, I don't need anyone else. And in medicine, ego is incredibly dangerous. And I'm thankful that I've grown into the kind of clinician and the kind of woman, the kind of person who isn't afraid to say, I don't know, or I need another opinion, or let's rethink that plan. That mindset has truly and legitimately saved lives. It has shaped my career.

And it continues to shape the way I lead, the way I teach, the way I practice and the way that I show up in this space. So as we head into this Thanksgiving week, want to leave you with this. Gratitude, of course, isn't just a holiday exercise. It's a practice. It's a way of rooting ourselves when life feels overwhelming or uncertain.

It's a way of reminding ourselves that even in seasons of stress, there are anchors that we can lean on. For me, it's my health, it's my family, it's my skills, it's my colleagues and the nurses I work with. It is you and this platform and my humility that keeps me growing. These are the things carrying me forward.

Nicole Rankins (16:04.704)

and I hope that you take a moment right now to name what's carrying you. All right, so that is it for this episode. Thank you so much for listening today. If this episode helped you, share it, share it with a friend and hit subscribe so you don't miss a thing. And if we're not connected yet, come follow me on Instagram. I'm on Instagram at Dr. Nicole Rankins. My DMs are...

open and I really really really love hearing from you. Now do me one more favor and come on back next week and remember to trust your power and take charge of your birth.