SOUTH Essex’s newest doctor is celebrating two huge milestones after after graduating and becoming a mum just months apart.

Husnah Tarab, 29, gave birth to her daughter Yara Selene earlier this year, just five weeks before she was due to sit her final medicine exam at Anglia Ruskin University.

The caesarean delivery meant she experienced pain and was unable to drive to her lectures, leaving her considering deferring her studies for a year.

However, the support she received from her partner Yanis, her family, and her peers at ARU’s School of Medicine empowered her to persevere.

Now, she has graduated and has started working at the Mid and South Essex NHS Trust as a foundation year medic.

Husnah said: “It wasn’t just taking the exams, but there are competency requirements and hours in practice to complete as well.

“My partner, my mum and my mother-in-law helped where they could and I had to lean on them a lot, even just to get the chance to rest and to heal.

“I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”

Pushing through the pain post-operation, she contemplated deferring the exams until later in the year.

However, her fellow peers at the School of Medicine provided her with the confidence and belief to give it a shot.

She added: “The C-section hit me like a truck.

“I wondered how I would get to exams and thought I might have to defer until later in the year.

“But friends in the School of Medicine knew what it meant and they gave me the belief to give it a go and get to the end.”

Husnah believes her time as a patient has broadened her view of the healthcare system, which she can apply to her work as a doctor.

She added: “Being a patient has taught me more about what people go through when they have surgery.

“When people come to hospital, they are maybe scared, in need of reassurance and support, it isn’t just the clinical side of healthcare they need, it is so much more.

“It’s a perspective I needed to become a good doctor.”