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Join Luissa Kiprono, an obstetrician-gynecologist, as she shares insights from her book, Push, Then Breathe: Trauma, Triumph, and the Making of an American Doctor. Luissa’s remarkable journey from surviving the oppressive regime in Romania to becoming a successful physician and advocate for women’s empowerment will leave you inspired and uplifted.

Luissa Kiprono is an obstetrician-gynecologist

She discusses her book, Push, Then Breathe: Trauma, Triumph, and the Making of an American Doctor.

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Transcript

Kevin Pho: Hi, and welcome to the show. Subscribe at KevinMD.com/podcast, and get CME for this episode by clicking on the CME link in the show notes. Today we welcome Luissa Kiprono. She’s a maternal fetal medicine physician, and we’re going to talk about her book Push, Then Breathe: Trauma, Triumph, and the Making of an American Doctor. Luissa, welcome to the show.

Luissa Kiprono: Thank you for having me, Kevin.

Kevin Pho: So let’s start by briefly sharing your story and journey.

Luissa Kiprono: So my journey started about 35 years ago, when I stepped foot in the United States. I was coming to visit America for two months and get to meet and know my father, who was a political dissident and who defected here to the United States from communist Romania.

As I said, I came here for two months, and through a very serious, let’s say, set of events that was not by design, I remained here in the United States. And the first six years and eight months were extremely, extremely difficult.

Imagine someone that comes from a different country, that doesn’t speak the language, doesn’t have any family, any ties to the new place, and really doesn’t expect to be here, and all of a sudden it’s kind of stuck. That was an extremely hard time for me.

And after I received my American citizenship, I succeeded to move out, achieve my independence from my father, and go back to school, get into medical school, and ultimately 15 years later become a physician, an obstetrician and gynecologist, and further later on I became a maternal fetal medicine specialist.

My desire to help people, though, came from a very, very young age. I was a very sickly child, I had chronic throat infections, and ultimately in my second grade, not me, my mother succeeded to convince the doctor to do surgery to remove my tonsils, which turned around my life. And that to me was just amazing, how people can actually heal others, heal patients, and give them back what really matters the most, their health.

So since that time I decided that this is my dream, to become a doctor. And there was nothing else that I wanted to do more in life, by the way of profession.

And then, after I became an American citizen, after I became an OB and maternal fetal medicine, then I started looking back and realized that, besides the physical, organic form of health, people also need emotional wellness, mental wellness. And we all have at some point or another run away from something, or tried to forget about something, but truth be told, it catches up with us.

So instead of trying to self-limit ourselves and always bring ourselves down, that we’re just not good enough, that we come from a very unsightly or negative past, we just have to start looking at how to heal ourselves, move above that, move beyond that, and not only survive in life. Really, life is too short. We need to figure out what we really want, grab our dream and really make it happen, because then you can say, I achieved my own potential, I am thriving in life, I’m not just surviving.

Kevin Pho: So your book is titled Push, Then Breathe: Trauma, Triumph, and the Making of an American Doctor. Tell us about the events that led you to write your book.

Luissa Kiprono: So this book started about 36 years ago, and in all truth, a couple of months after I set foot in America, I started handwriting the first chapter of this book. Didn’t make it past, I’d say, about 20 pages, and handwritten in Romanian. And then I closed it, tucked it aside in a box, and it sat there literally for all these years.

And then, after I finished my fellowship and after I became a maternal fetal medicine specialist, I started thinking about it, it started popping in my mind, like, you know what about that book, what about if I just bring it back and start working on it?

So shortly I started working on it on my own again. I was very determined this time around, so I started recording myself so I could make it faster, and that didn’t last very long once again.

So I finally said, I am working full-time, I am a single parent, something has to give. So I actually got a book coach, who helped me along to get this dream of mine accomplished. It took about five years to finish it, last March, so 13 months ago we finished it, and it got accepted for publication.

But it was a very, very long road, and not only the process of writing it and editing it and finding a publisher, but also my own vulnerability, putting it out there to the world. That was by far the hardest thing that one can get over, to be able to put on paper their whole life story.

We all have hardships, trials and tribulations in our lives, but we always are afraid to share it, to show our human and vulnerable state, because we are afraid we are the only ones out there that goes through it. And some of us say, well, who’s going to care? Or some of us think, well, if I bare my heart to the world, they’re going to change their opinion about me, they’re going to think, oh my God, you are so vulnerable, you are not the person we used to know.

And truth be told, we need to do that in order to not only help others but help ourselves. So that was a very, very hard thing for me to get over.

When I started working on this book, Kevin, I went in the attic and I took down two boxes full of planners and journals, and I spread them on the floor, and pictures, and I spread them on the floor so I can start working on it. And it was heartbreaking to walk that memory lane.

But a lot of the times we can choose, or we can try to go around it, we can try to avoid it, run away from it. But until we get through it, to experience that raw realization that this is who we are, and that’s what we want to put out to the world, if we want to show the world that compassion and empathy is something that we are willing to share, that is who we are, the truth of us. Nothing is going to come in its true form. So it was an experience.

Kevin Pho: So tell us about how your journey and all the obstacles that you overcame in your life, how does that affect you today as a physician, as a maternal fetal medicine physician?

Luissa Kiprono: As a maternal fetal medicine physician, as a woman’s doctor especially, I chose high-risk pregnancies because, one, I had very high risk pregnancies myself, and I think that’s what drew me to that field.

But when I talk to my patients, to me at this point in my life, and for the last decade or so, after you gain experience and you’re comfortable in your specialty, or whatever that may be, those visits and discussions no longer become, we call it, textbook. You talk to people, because these patients are your fellow human beings and you want to help them.

And they open their heart to you and they talk about what they go through, what the pains of the pregnancy, of the high risk that they go through, what the desire that they want to have another child, or that they had a loss in the past. And to me those conversations are now so true to the core, to the heart.

And it’s almost like, hey, let’s just have a conversation on how are we going to carry you through this pregnancy in the safest way for you, for the baby, to become the most successful, and at the end when you hold that baby in your arms.

So it becomes a journey with my patient. It’s a journey of not only taking care of them medically but also spiritually. Because a lot of, think about our patients, our patients, when they come to us, they come in the most vulnerable state. So I am honored to take care of them, I am honored to help them, and that’s how I spend every day of my life when I’m a physician.

Kevin Pho: Now, what are some of the other key messages that you want readers to come away with after reading your book?

Luissa Kiprono: So my book has a story but also a message.

So the story is a story of a young woman who came for a two months visit and ended up in a journey of her lifetime, went through a lot of hardship, abuse, trauma, mental abuse, physical abuse, rape, full dependence, isolation, and who succeeded to overcome all that. Not only overcome and free herself out of that situation, but move forward and thrive.

And that is the message. The message is that we all have trials and tribulations in our lives. However, we have to figure out, first, what did we learn? For me, I learned that I cannot change my past, that whatever has been done to me is behind me, and I must let go.

The second thing is, we have to figure out what would drive us. So for me it was my dream to become a doctor. So figure out your dream, your goal, and grab on it and don’t let go until you succeed, until you accomplish it.

And the third, what’s in your rainbow? In my rainbow, what is it, either my handicap, being a foreigner, having to learn a language, a system, having to get over what has happened to me, or my amazing abilities? So I chose the latter. I chose the positive state, that yes, I can overcome my past and I can thrive in my life.

So my readers, my viewers, I want them to take those three questions. What did you learn? What drives you? What’s in your rainbow?

Kevin Pho: We’re talking to Luissa Kiprono. She’s a maternal fetal medicine physician, and we’re talking about her book Push, Then Breathe: Trauma, Triumph, and the Making of an American Doctor. Luissa, one of the themes in your book is one of forgiveness. So talk more about that, and how your experiences regarding the process of forgiving contributed to your own personal resilience.

Luissa Kiprono: Resilience is something that we have to cultivate. It’s like a muscle. I hear the word resilience a lot nowadays, but practicing resilience is not like you wake up one morning and say, oh, I’m going to be resilient. Being resilient is the gift or the characteristic of someone to learn from their shortcomings, failures, and get up and dust off and get back at it again, and learn from where they fell short last time.

The second thing is, you have to be patient. Patience and consistency are very important, not only in life but in our personal growth. If we are not patient and we want everything immediately, the same thing, if we are not consistent. We all want to have things today or tomorrow, but truth be told, that cannot happen. A success, or a long-lasting goal that has to be attained, does take a lot of patience and consistency.

The importance of community, and leaning on your community, leaning on your friends, even what I call them, the lighthouses, that one person or two that you can pick up the phone and you can talk, or you can meet, cry with them, have them listen to your worries or your hopes. Helps me quite a bit, helps me a great deal come back stronger from my weaker moments, because truth be told, we all have those.

And last but not least, don’t forget to fill up your cup. We all need that recharge moment, we need those fuels to be able to make us sustainable. What can it be, right? Well, for me it’s running. OK, but for others, anybody can have anything. Reading, journaling, walking, looking at birds, listening to music, walking a dog, gardening, all that, that’s filling your cup.

And you have to remember that if you are kind, you have to remember to be kind to yourself, and feel that every day, because you’re going to need it. I need it, we all need it. It’s just replenishment, mental and emotional and holistic replenishment of our mental wellness, that keeps us going.

It’s not like a sprint. Life is not like a sprint, life is like the journey of 10,000 miles. So you’ve got to pace yourself, to have everything that you want to have accomplished, to the best of your abilities.

Kevin Pho: And my final question, Luissa, just share some take-home messages that you want to leave with the KevinMD audience.

Luissa Kiprono: So someone asked me, after this book got published, which by the way it made an Amazon bestseller the day before it launched, well, what now, what do you expect, what are your goals?

So I say, I’m a curious type of individual, but whatever comes next, I’m just going to let it arrive, and assess it and accept it and kind of run with it.

I am an accomplished physician, I’m an accomplished human being, I have done a great deal in my life, and I accomplished pretty much everything I’ve wanted to. But really, at the core, I am a mother, I’m a wife, I’m a daughter, I’m a human being that is loved, that is accomplished, but is cared for, and I am seen.

And being seen by others the way I am, it’s one of the most beautiful gifts someone can give me. And I want to give it back to our humanity by showing empowerment to women, by showing people how they can too become what they really want to become, and what they are destined to become. So that’s all I have today.

Kevin Pho: Luissa, thank you so much for sharing your story, perspective, and insight, and thanks again for coming on the show.

Luissa Kiprono: Thank you, Kevin. It’s been my pleasure, and it’s been an honor to be on your show with you.