- November 4, 2024
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“This little girl is our miracle baby,” Chiamaka Iheme said. Zinma Molokwu was born at 25 weeks. Photo by Paige Wilson
Dr. Chiamaka Iheme listens to the breaths of 13-year-old Palm Coast resident Kaia Tietjen. Photo by Paige Wilson
In Chiamaka Iheme's office, inspirational messages surround a photo of her, her husband and their "miracle baby." Photo by Paige Wilson
Chiamaka Iheme plays on the floor with her daughter Zinma Molokwu. Photo by Paige Wilson
Dr. Chiamaka Iheme reads a patient's file in an exam room. Photo by Paige Wilson
Zinma Molokwu looks up at her mother Chiamaka Iheme. Photo by Paige Wilson
Dr. Chiamaka Iheme examines the leg of 86-year-old Palm Coast resident Charles Frazier. Photo by Paige Wilson
Chiamaka Iheme feeds breast milk to her daughter Friday afternoon after work. Photo by Paige Wilson
On the door of Chiamaka Iheme's office, a sign reads "Keep calm and come back later. Pumping in progress." She spends her lunch breaks pumping breast milk for her daughter. Photo by Paige Wilson
Chiamaka Iheme helps her daughter Zinma Molokwu stand up. Photo by Paige Wilson
Twenty-five weeks into pregnancy, Dr. Chiamaka Iheme unexpectedly went into labor. Her only child Zinma Molokwu is now 4 and 1/2 months old.
“This little girl is our miracle baby,” she said.
Iheme is a family medicine physician at Florida Hospital Flagler in Palm Coast who works Monday to Friday while her mother takes care of Molokwu at home.
“That’s the biggest worry when they’re premature: they can lag behind other kids their age,” Iheme said. “So, you have to make sure they’re meeting their goals and not catching it too late.”
After work and over the weekend, Iheme and her husband help Molokwu practice what she learns in physical therapy twice a week.
“They give us homework, so we have to do the homework with her,” she said. “We’re working on her rolling over and spending time on her belly.”
Iheme said being a doctor is both beneficial and harmful to being a mother. But she said being a mother “is everything.”
“I think it helps in the sense that I know I can see her, and I can assess her real quick and make a decision that this is an emergency or it’s not, and it’s good to have that background,” she said. “But then, knowing too is sometimes debilitating, and you can’t think sometimes clearly when it’s your own child.”
Iheme spends her lunch break pumping breast milk in her office in the FHF medical plaza. The patients she sees range from children to elderly, which is something she enjoys about the field she chose.
“It’s not easy,” Iheme said about balancing work and motherhood. “It’s a lot better because I have help. My mom’s helping me with her, so it makes life a little bit easier in terms of just focusing on work when I’m at work and not having to worry about her too much because I know she’s in good hands. … I don’t know how easy it would be without her here. It would be a lot more difficult. Mothers helping mothers.”
