Claudia Garcia was at a recent family barbecue when she got the call. A patient was going into labor. It’s a familiar routine for her children by now.
Garcia called a babysitter to meet her at the hospital, and everyone piled into the car. The children have a snack in the doctors’ lounge while Claudia gets to work.
She has spent 13 years as an obstetrician and gynecologist in Brownsville.
Working as a physician, especially one who can be called on at a moment’s notice, requires an elaborate juggling act with all of life’s other demands.
“As a female, they tell you (that) you can do anything,” the 43-year-old says. “But what they don’t tell you is if you want to do it right, you can’t do it all at the same time. I think the trick is finding the balance, and medicine has to be the priority.”
While Claudia was born in Brownsville, she grew up in Matamoros as the oldest of three children. She graduated from high school and became a student at the University of Texas at Brownsville at 16. Claudia was the first in her family to earn a bachelor’s degree and first to become a doctor.
“I’m the first crazy one,” she says, laughing. “They were very supportive, but I think we got into it without knowing what the long-term was going to be.”
It’s possible, Claudia says, she wouldn’t have pursued medicine had she known how much sacrifice it would require.
There’s an overall shortage of physicians in the Valley, she says, but also of women in medicine.
“I never felt pushed aside or anything, but you definitely need to have your thick skin,” Claudia admits.
