This Won't Hurt a Bit (and Other White Lies): My Education in Medicine and Motherhood

Michelle Au started medical school armed only with a surfeit of idealism, a handful of old ER episodes for reference, and some vague notion about helping people.

This Won't Hurt a Bit is the story of how she grew up and became a real doctor.

It's a no-holds-barred account of what a modern medical education feels like, from the grim to the ridiculous, from the heartwarming to the obscene. Unlike most medical memoirs, however, this one details the author's struggles to maintain a life outside of the hospital, in the small amount of free time she had to live it. And, after she and her husband have a baby early in both their medical residencies, Au explores the demands of being a parent with those of a physician, two all-consuming jobs in which the lives of others are very literally in her hands.

Au's stories range from hilarious to heartbreaking and hit every note in between, proving more than anything that the creation of a new doctor (and a new parent) is far messier, far more uncertain, and far more gratifying than one could ever expect.

Michelle Au started medical school armed only with a surfeit of idealism, a handful of old ER episodes to reference, and some vague notion about helping people. This is the story of how she grew up and became a real doctor. Through her years in medical training, she also attempts to maintain a life outside the hospital as she and her resident husband decide to have a baby. A new mother struggling to balance long days and nights in the hospital with her real life, Au finds herself in the classic struggle of working motherhood, trying to do two equally high-stress jobs without losing her sanity or sense of humor. THIS WON'T HURT A BIT is a story about the imperfect, occasionally ridiculous, never boring process of medical training and life outside it, where an ordinary person can learn the kind of doctor and mother she wants to be under the most extraordinary circumstances.