Maltese Doctor Celebrated For Taking Her Baby To Her Big Conference Presentation
Paediatric emergency medicine doctor Nikki Abela was applauded by her colleagues as she took the stage along with her two month old daughter Julia, at a paediatric conference in Melbourne this week.
The 32 year old Maltese doctor surprised her audience of international doctors as she took the stage with Julia sleeping peacefully in her sling. Doctor Nikki gave an amazing presentation at the sold out conference.
“Luckily Julia remained asleep as she was rocking in her sling while I paced the stage. However, I’m not hoping to be as lucky when I present another session tomorrow and may have to breastfeed her on stage,” Nikki told Lovin Malta.
Yay! The wonderful @NikkiAbela gives her talk alongside our youngest DFTB presenter EVER#DFTB18 pic.twitter.com/zwQb2WndPu
— DFTB Team (@DFTBubbles) August 27, 2018
Nikki said that the organisers were extremely supportive of her decision and told her “just do what you need”.
Her partner John Micallef Moreno was also at hand with streams of support towards both Nikki and Julia.
Nikki said that when the photos of her and Julia were posted on social media she received a stream of supportive messages from people applauding the way she handled the situation.
“People sent messages saying this is the way forward for professional women and conferences in general,” Nikki said.
Thanks from the kinesthetic learners for the wooden spoon explanation for mechanism of fractures. @NikkiAbela #DFTB18 pic.twitter.com/PVeCsBDQNa
— Sonia Twigg (@LankyTwig) August 27, 2018
She was there representing the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s e-learning site, who have continually provided her with support to continue her professional hobbies in maternity leave.
“The first months as a new mother are difficult and even getting out of the house can seem like a massive task. But through creating networks of support, future thinking professional organisations like RCEMLearning and dontforgetthebubbles and having understanding family members that I am able to do this,” she said.
One of the best parts of this conference is the number of parents and babies attending.
Here’s a some of our DFTBabies at #DFTB18 pic.twitter.com/C3zDeFwYlr
— DFTB Team (@DFTBubbles) August 28, 2018