100. Celebrating 100 Episodes of Stethoscopes and Strollers: Welcome to 2026!

Hey Doc

We made it. A brand new year and the 100th episode of Stethoscopes and Strollers.

This isn’t just a milestone. It’s a moment to pause, reflect, and remember why this podcast, and this work, exists in the first place.

Yes, it started with postpartum burnout.

Yes, it evolved through early motherhood, transitions, and work stress.

But at the center of it all? Empowering women physicians to stop giving their power away — at home, at work, and everywhere in between.

In this episode, I reflect on how my mission has deepened and where we’re headed in 2026. We talk about:

• Why empowerment has always been the point
• The real impact of conditioning in medicine and motherhood
• What it means to be powerful on your terms
• And what’s next for this community beyond just physician moms

🎧 Tune in for a powerful start to 2026, and a reminder that you don’t need to become anyone else to take your power back.

Subscribe to ✨Stethoscopes and Strollers✨ on your favorite podcast platform so you never miss an episode.

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If you are going through a transition -- becoming a parent, leaving a job, figuring out how manage it all, schedule a strategy coaching session and get clarity and strategic next steps for the life and career you want.

Strategy Coaching Session with Dr. Toya

Transcript

 Hey Doc, Happy New Year. It is 2026 and I am so glad to be back in your ear in a brand new year. Can you believe it? It is 2026. I hope you had a wonderful holiday season and you didn't have to work too hard, it wasn't too stressful, and you are ready to embrace 2026. And you are as excited as I am. And it just so happens that this is my 100th episode.

Which if you're watching, that's why I look so beautiful.

I mean, I usually look beautiful, but you know, I dressed up and put on some makeup and stuff. So I look a little bit extra beautiful. And if you hear like. Dangling and dangling in the background is because I'm wearing some very big earrings. To mock this celebration so you get a little background music in addition to my wonderful voice.

 And you know, it's funny because this is not actually my 100th episode because I break stuff up so much and do little parts and have bonus episodes. I've published actually way more than a hundred episodes. But technically this one is going to be labeled 100. So that is a celebration because you know, I love to celebrate everything.

I love to brag about everything. I have a podcast that is highly rated, globally rated, that has 100 episodes, which is not an easy feat. If you try to start a podcast where you thought about it, you would know that this is a big deal and I am celebrating it, and I am happy. And I thank you for listening because.

I would not be here without you. That ranking is part of it. A big part of it is because people come and listen every single week.  So I could not be here without you, doc. So I'm very, very grateful and I wanna say thank you, and I want you to share the episode so I get even higher. I can get a 2.5% ranking or a 1% ranking, and that would be even more amazing.

So thank you very much. And truly, I do this because I love you, doc. I'm not afraid to say it. Even though I don't know you, I am not afraid to say that I love you and I want to support you, and I want you to be able to live your best life in 2026. That has not changed, and so on this 100th episode, this first episode of the New Year, 2026, I wanted to talk about something that my coach brought up. We were talking about something that is actually not important, but she was saying why she came to coaching, like why she started coaching. And if you don't know, my coaching mentor is also a relationship coach, relationship and intimacy coach, and she was saying.

She was called to coaching because that was her arena, marriage, communication, intimacy. And that is how she facilitates transformation because of her deep connection and her interest in that arena. And then she went on to say, and you came to coaching

because of needing to find support and listing your priorities and enlisting your husband to help you manage your household, and all of those things that she very accurately described for why I started. You know, that big event, that postpartum burnout that got me started along this particular path. But when she was saying it, 'cause I was listening to a message on our messaging app and as she said, and you came to coaching because the first thing that popped into my mind was because of the empowerment of women.

Like it didn't even, it wasn't even a conscious thought. It just came and I even told her that. I was like, yeah, what you said was great, but this is what actually. Came to the forefront and it is so perfect because that's what it is. That's what it has always been, and that's what I wanted to share today in this new year. As I reflect on 2025 and look forward to 2026 and what I wanted to be, I can see. The evolution of that fact in the content of the podcast, in my focus in general, and it was only this conversation that happened just a few weeks ago that made me realize that, wow, I'm really coming into something that was really a focus and that is within me and has been within me for a very long time because there is this memory that I have.

When I was very young, I don't, I don't even think I was in double digits yet. And I had a uncle visit from Barbados. He came to our house and he had been to our house many times before and I was watching, I think it was, um, what is that? Drew Barrymore movie where she was like Cinderella. I don't remember the name of the movie, but it was one of my favorite movies back in the day.

And he was like. You know, you are always watching movies with a strong female lead. Of course, he didn't say it quite like that. But that was the point. He was like, there's always just a woman and she's in charge, or you know, she's the heroine. And at that age, I had no idea.

What that meant. I didn't know the significance of it, but it always stuck with me because it was something that he noticed. This big man who, was intelligent and I, I thought worldly at my young age. And it always stuck that that was something that he noticed.

And. It was significant as I went along my journey because he was right. Like I have always been focused on women and us being in charge and us being powerful and feeling powerful. It's why I wanted to become an OB, GYN. Like I always tell people I never wanted to be a doctor. I always wanted to be a gynecologist, and it was because I heard my friends talking about our bodies and you know, we were in high school so people were talking about boyfriends and maybe Precociously talking about sex. And some of the things they were saying, I didn't know much, but I was like, that is not right. I don't know the right answer, but what you are saying is not correct.

And I just found that we should know more about our bodies as young girls. And it made me want to learn more about my body and then also educate other young women. And that is why I wanted to become a gynecologist slash a doctor. Like it wasn't like, "Oh, maybe I'll do this. Maybe it..." it was always this, it was for the education of women and that never, I never wavered.

And even as I left corporate medicine, started doing locums, but really. That transition from corporate medicine to locums was my leap from traditional employed practice into a world of entrepreneurship, a will of creativity, a world of. Leaning into parts of myself that were lost, and part of that was my TikTok channel, Dr.

Toya ob, GYN,

And the tagline for Dr. Toya OBGYN, was empowerment through education. Like it has always been there because I truly believe that education is the way for people to feel empowered, to have agency to advocate for themselves. So my goal for that channel was to educate women so that they could feel empowered,. They would know what questions to ask, not that they would see my videos and feel like they've gone to medical school, but be Empowered enough to understand when conversations were happening, to ask the right questions and to advocate for themselves if they will be discriminated against, if they were being dismissed and ignored.

It was always about empowerment.

  📍 And. It just so happened that this transition, this phase, came in the form of postpartum burnout.

So the focus evolved from postpartum.

Because that was the phase I was in when everything happened. Then early years of motherhood, because I realized that the early years were truly the foundation for motherhood ahead, and we had a lot of unlearning and a lot of caring for ourselves to do. And it went beyond the postpartum period. And then it evolved beyond that to any mom

who is a physician who is going through a transition and realizing that the socialization and the conditioning that we undergo as women in this society and as doctors, they have an additive effect to make these periods of transition, no matter what they are, even harder.

That conditioning that we must give everything. We must over-function. You have to be everything to everyone. That is what is expected of mothers in many societies, and it is definitely what is expected of us in our US medical culture. So if you put those two together, god damn.

So it doesn't matter if you are postpartum or going back to work, it could be any transition.

It makes it very difficult, and that is where the evolution of Dr. Toya  coaching of my focus

came to over 2025. And of course. Central to everything that I do. Giving extra love, extra support to black physician moms because we have an extra layer, an extra intersection that makes things just a little bit different,

we need spaces that are a little bit more safe, so it's

making sure that we are. Seen and understood at the highest level, at the deepest level for each of us. So I only serve physicians. I only serve physicians who are mothers, and I give special love to physicians who are mothers, who are black because I see the unique needs that people have.

That is one of my superpowers.

So yeah, my coach was right. I came to coaching because I knew I needed support. I knew I needed to take care of myself. I knew I needed to enlist my husband to help more around the home. And as I learned to do those things, I wanted to share it with other physician moms, empower them to do the same.

It so much more than that. And if you look back through my episodes last year, a lot of those didn't really matter if you were a mom, right? So the ones , that I'm the most excited about are for all women physicians. When you talk about episode 80 and 81, the Empowered Exit, helping women physicians leave their jobs, feeling empowered, not worrying about burning bridges or burning the entire hospital down. That is relevant for everybody, and I put it in the name of the episode, the Empowered Exit, because so many times we feel like we are trapped.

We have a term for it, golden handcuffs, and I feel like that is the most bullshit. Like these people do not control us. They do not have us by golden handcuffs. We are in control. We are the revenue generators. And when you leave, you can leave empowered. Even if you're getting terminated, you can leave empowered.

And. When I made those two episodes, it was just like, yes, this is gonna help. So many women physicians even made a checklist so that if you don't have time to listen to two whole episodes, you can get exactly what you need. That was the most downloaded checklist I have ever made

so it is something that I know I'm so proud of that will help so many women physicians, not mom specific. Episode 86? Are you The problem where I talk about negotiation and the types of things that we tell younger physicians or other women physicians about asking and negotiating and how it's unprofessional and all the things that we are doing to perpetuate the patriarchy that exists in medicine and really in our own homes, that is not  mom specific, I have so much to say, so many opinions, and very importantly, so many unique experiences because of all the transitions that I have made in my relatively short career, that it gives me a very unique perspective and I just want to share it with everyone. For the empowerment of women physicians because too often we give away our power, and for 2026, I am continuing that mission to help you feel as empowered as possible and to take your power back because you have it. I'm not trying to help you find power somewhere, or gain skills, so you could be powerful. It is to harness the power that you already have, you already have it, and it is my goal in 2026 to help you find it. To help you dig deep inside and stand up to your hospital system to stand up to your employer, to take the power back from your mother-in-law, from your husband, from your kids. Take that power. Back because you have it, you do not have to do half of the things you think you have to do.

you could want to, you can choose to. And even something as simple as that, recognizing that you are making choices every single day, that you are responsible for the life that you are living. And it may seem like a beat down. It seemed like a call out, but it is empowerment. It is the little bit of discomfort you may feel before the joy and the pleasure and the agency of feeling truly empowered, knowing that you can always find work as a physician. You can leave a job without burning bridges or feeling like you'll never be employed again. You can provide for your family.

You can be present for your kids. You can be the type of mother that you want to be, that you want to be. Not that society tells you you have to be, not that your mother-in-law tells you that you have to be. Not that a past version of you tells you that you have to be not your older male partners who have never seen their children in the last 20 years tells you that you have to be, that you want to be.

Create a life that feels so aligned with who you are now and for you to live it unapologetically. That is the focus in 2026, and it really has been the focus all along. So you will continue to get all of the things that you need to feel empowered in your life as it relates to motherhood and as it relates to being a physician. With many more episodes focused on.

Everything you need to thrive and live your best life as a woman who happens to be a physician and whatever else you happen to be. Because you're a complex being, being a physician and a mother are just two very small parts.

You may feel like it is all of who you are, but there is so much more to you, doc. You are a complex human being and my goal is to have you realize that and honor every single part.

And realize that you deserve pleasure, and you deserve rest, and you deserve help, and you do not have to do everything alone.

That is being powerful. Being supported is being powerful. Outsourcing is being powerful.

Leaning on your husband is being powerful. Working on your marriage is being powerful. saying no to 15 afterschool activities so that you can just spend time at home with your family, which is actually what you wanna do, but you feel like you should do those other things because that's what good moms do. Is being powerful, and I am so excited to share this journey with you.



So I am so excited for the episodes to come. Do I have them recorded yet? No, but that's okay. I have many, many ideas so. I'm excited to get them recorded and get them out.

So I cannot wait for the rest of 2026 to continue to empower women physicians, to continue to empower physician moms, to continue to love on and care for Black physician moms. I, I can't wait. This is going to be a great year, and I thank you again for coming along on the ride with me.

Make sure you do all the things.

Share the episode. Let somebody know about this podcast. I assure you know somebody who does not listen to this podcast, and you should call her and be like, you need to listen to this podcast. Let's go ahead and subscribe, follow, so you never miss an episode. Make sure you give a five star review on Apple Podcast and a five star rating everywhere else.

And, don't be afraid to post on social media, put it in groups. Be like, oh my God, this episode was so amazing. Dr. Toya is the best. All of those things.

And I will see you on the next episode of Stethoscopes and Strollers.