14
PROFILE
BREAKING
new ground
Kerryn Phelps
speaks to Neil
Bramwell
about teaching
her patients
aerobics and
following a path
less trodden
MEDICALOBSERVER.COM.AU MARCH 2018
YOU have no doubt seen her on TV,
prolifically. You may well have read
her articles on the pages of the Aus-
tralian Women’s Weekly, enduringly.
And you will almost certainly
have witnessed her in political
action, formidably.
But precious few have witnessed Pro-
fessor Kerryn Phelps, Lycra-clad, dancing
frenetically.
“I ran popular aerobics classes for 10
years at my gym after having my second
baby,” she says.
“It was a lot of fun to be the DJ and
choreographer. Lycra and I got on very
well back then!
“It was in Mosman, where I was practis-
ing as a GP at the time, so a lot of my patients
and colleagues came to my classes. It didn’t
seem like a clash at all, because I followed
the philosophy that exercise and fitness are
part of an integrated approach to health and
well-being.”
It was, however, an early indication that
Professor Phelps was not afraid to follow the
path less trodden.
She first upset the medical apple cart
after becoming pregnant as an intern in 1981.
It was previously unheard of for a pregnant
intern to continue her training, let alone take
maternity leave.
But this particular intern was not going
to conveniently slink off into the shadows to
have her baby. The hospital administrators
had to find a solution.
“I suppose I was forging a path for
doctors to look after their emo-
tional well-being by find-
ing time for family,
something I took
forward into
the AMA,”