JAMA Do No Harm Skip to main content Close Select your preferred language English عربى 简体中文 繁體中文 فارسي עִברִית 日本語 한국어 Русский Español Tagalog Menu Close Call 1-800-CEDARS-1 toggle search form Close Los Angeles, 03 October 2020 09:00 AM America/Los_Angeles JAMA Do No Harm Nitin Kapur, MD, is an internal medicine specialist with Cedars-Sinai Medical Group in Santa Monica. Photo by Cedars-Sinai. The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) recently published an essay by Nitin Kapur, MD, an internal medicine specialist with Cedars-Sinai Medical Group in Santa Monica, about the challenges he faced during his stint as a stay-at-home dad. After moving to Los Angeles – a new city far from his extended family – and failing to find a suitable nanny, Kapur chose to become the primary caregiver for his two daughters, who were both under the age of two. He writes that stay-at-home fatherhood felt like hours of monotony punctuated with moments of panic. Having given up his internal medicine practice in Texas so his wife could pursue her psychiatry residency, Kapur missed the logic and precision of medicine. "No such certainty existed for parenting," Kapur writes in the JAMA essay. Instead of making evidence-based diagnoses, he puzzled over how many cookies his girls deserved after eating their vegetables. At times, he felt paralyzed by doubt. Kapur recounts a particularly harrowing experience when his two-year-old daughter falls and hits her head against a bathtub. "As a doctor, I once knew how to manage this trauma, but now as a stay-at-home dad, I am the worst man for the job," Kapur writes. He later tells his wife about the episode, confessing his fears that he's a bad parent and doesn't know anything. She comforts him, "There is no perfect way to parent. You are doing the best you can. All that matters is that you love them." Years later, Kapur writes, he tells his daughters about these "moments of breathless uncertainty," about how imperfectly he raised them, how insecure he felt, and how he fully embraced his role as their father. Click here to read the complete essay in JAMA (subscription required). Related Stories RSS feed - Related Stories (opens in new window) View all headlines - Related Stories Cedars-Sinai Opens First Location Serving Los Feliz Area June 15, 2022 12:12 PM America/Los_Angeles Cedars-Sinai has opened new offices offering urgent care for adults and children, primary care and OB-GYN care in one convenient, new building in the heart of Los Feliz. The modern, 10,000-square-foot space is Cedars-Sinai’s first location serving … Read more Health Experts Urge Caution During Labor Day Weekend September 04, 2020 06:00 AM America/Los_Angeles An increase in travel and social gatherings over the Labor Day weekend could lead to a spike in COVID-19 cases, mirroring similar increases after other recent national holidays, Cedars-Sinai experts warn.Andrew Chuang, MD, an internal medicine … Read more Cedars-Sinai s New Santa Monica Offices December 04, 2019 06:15 AM America/Los_Angeles To better serve the coastal communities, Cedars-Sinai has expanded its offices at 1919 Santa Monica Blvd. in Santa Monica. Already home to an established gastroenterology practice, patients can now also find specialists in primary care, oncology, … Read more Show previous items Show next items Contact the Media Team Email: [email protected] Contact Marni Usheroff marni.usheroff@cshs.org Share this release JAMA Do No Harm Share on: Twitter Share on: Facebook Share on: LinkedIn Search Our Newsroom Social media Visit our Facebook page (opens in new window) Follow us on Twitter (opens in new window) Visit our Youtube profile (opens in new window) (opens in new window) Latest news 07 Oct 2022 - HealthDay: Black Women Less Likely to Get Laparoscopic Fibroid Surgeries 07 Oct 2022 - Faculty Publications: Sept. 29-Oct. 6 07 Oct 2022 - Fine-Tuning Organ-Chip Technology 06 Oct 2022 - KCRW: Want New Omicron Booster? Wait at Least 2 Months After Last Shot 05 Oct 2022 - Cedars-Sinai Schedules Free Flu Vaccine Clinics 04 Oct 2022 - Cedars-Sinai Showcases Hispanic and Latinx Art Newsroom Home