Teaneck Doctor Focuses on Balancing Family and Career by The Record Staff Writer - Mike Kerwick The pregnant woman showed up at 10 p.m. — her water broken, her baby pushing. The doctor greeted her with this unlikely bit of information: She was attending her daughter's piano recital at 2 p.m. the following afternoon. If the baby did not pop out by 1:30, another doctor would handle the delivery. The woman fired a quizzical look at her doctor. Really? A piano recital? "Once you have your baby," Dr. Yvonne Thornton told her patient, "you'll understand what I mean." It is a story that cuts to the heart of Thornton's new book, "Something to Prove: A Daughter's Journey to Fulfill a Father's Legacy." The longtime Teaneck resident became a familiar name in 1995, when her previous memoir, "The Ditchdigger's Daughters," arrived to critical acclaim. In that book, Thornton focused on her father, a man who spent his life digging ditches so his six daughters could build something better with their own lives. "Something to Prove" is the story of the flip side, chronicling Thornton's life as a mother, wife and physician (at Westchester Medical Center). This book details struggle of a different kind, the struggle of balancing personal and professional elements. She wants young women to know they can build both a career and a family, even if at times that seems impossible. "Many young women are fearful of that," Thornton said. " 'I'll lose my standing with regard to the corporate ladder if I take some time off to have children.' And I'm saying, 'Not really.' " That both of Thornton's children ended up following her into medicine offers Thornton a nice mix of vindication and humor. Asked when her kids first took to medicine, Thornton says, "in utero." Asked how she steered them toward medicine, she jokes, "[I told them] if they want to eat. …" Thornton gives her husband a lot of credit. She said the trick to balancing is working together, taking turns. Her son was an excellent chess player. So when Thornton was dealing with deliveries, her husband was shuttling their son back and forth to tournaments. "And I know people don't sit down at the dinner table anymore to talk, but that's what we do," Thornton said. "We did sit down when they were here. And it was nice. It's very nice to sit and to talk and discuss what your views are and what the kids' views are." Meanwhile, back in that delivery room … 11 p.m. … 9 a.m. … Noon … At noon, she reminded her patient, "About an hour and a half. …" "Would you believe that woman — she became fully dilated," Thornton said. "We delivered her at 1:30. I jumped into the car, the scrubs on and everything. I basically was barreling up FDR Drive, over the bridge to Teaneck and the Hawthorne [Elementary] School, and I made it for my daughter's recital."