By Barry Wise Smith
Dr. Sarah Bagwell
Dr. Sarah Bagwell grew up in Dallas, Texas, the youngest of three kids. When she was 15 years old and in high school, Bagwell developed debilitating migraine headaches that threw her into a world of doctors and treatments that disrupted her otherwise normal high-school life. Due to her age, it was hard finding doctors who could treat her. “I was stuck in this weird limbo between adolescence and becoming a young adult,” Bagwell remembers. “Through this I developed such empathy for patients who were going through this transition.”
Inspired by her personal experience, Bagwell became interested in becoming a doctor who could treat patients from birth through adulthood, providing a continuum of care throughout a patient’s life. “My situation was what inspired me to go into medicine,” Bagwell says. “To be able to take care of someone as a baby throughout their life, to see generations of families is amazing.”
Wanting to leave Texas, Bagwell went to Clemson University in South Carolina where she earned her undergraduate degree in finance and met her now-husband Caleb. “My family are all entrepreneurs, so while I knew I wanted to go to medical school, I was very business minded and decided to pursue my degree in finance,” Bagwell says. Bagwell returned to Texas to attend medical school at University of Texas Houston and got married the summer after she started med school.
For her four-year med/peds residency, Bagwell looked all over the country from California to the East Coast but fell in love with UAB. “I interviewed in Boston and other places,” she remembers, but on match day Bagwell learned her training would continue in Birmingham, Alabama. The Bagwells moved to Birmingham in 2014. Two years into her residency training, Bagwell gave birth to her first child.
Adjusting to first-time motherhood while managing a demanding career took getting used to, and Bagwell credits her husband for “a lot of support.” Discussing that time, Bagwell remembers it as, “hard and certainly stressful, but it was totally worth it. It made me understand the sacrifices that people make for job, career and family and wanting to have a balance. It also made me prioritize the time I had with my child, making sure it was high-quality time.”
After completing her residency, Bagwell went to work at UAB and added three more children to the family. After the birth of the family’s fourth child in 2022 (Bagwell’s four kids are ages nine, seven, five and three), she decided to take a break to bond with her son, who they had adopted. “It was the first time I allowed myself to step back and really reflect on the next trajectory from both a career and family standpoint,” Bagwell says. “It allowed me time to really focus on my goals and priorities and find something that would align with what I wanted to be both as a mom and a physician.”
Bagwell continues, “My goal as a physician is to be able to take care of my patients well, and part of that is for my patients to be in good contact with me and for me to be responsive and be able to coordinate care.” So, in 2024, Bagwell joined the staff at Signature Health, a concierge medical practice in Homewood where she sees patients from birth through adulthood.
“I tend to overwork myself if I’m honest,” Bagwell says. “So here, I can put boundaries in my schedule in order to be the mom and the physician I want to be. I have the flexibility here to prioritize my kids’ events and be present for my family.”
The Bagwells prioritize family dinners “even if that means eating at five to get to an activity at 5:30,” Bagwell says. “We like to sit down and go through the highs and lows of our days and be connected with each other.”
As a mom of four and a practicing physician, Bagwell has learned to delegate and give herself grace. “I’ve had to realize, I’m not always going to be the one to clean the house or do all the errands,” Bagwell says. “I have to delegate, because my priority is being here for my patients and also being there for my kids. So, I have to let go and find others who can do those things for me.”
Bagwell also relies on her husband to take up slack as well, “Caleb and me are a team, and he’s a wonderful partner. I wouldn’t be able to have four kids and a career if it wasn’t for him. He’s my biggest cheerleader.”
Dr. Elizabeth Peters
Dr. Elizabeth Peters knew from a young age, she wanted to be a pediatrician. “At the age of three, I told my parents I wanted to be a baby doctor,” Peters remembers. “Growing up that was always my goal.”
Growing up in an Air Force family, Peters moved around A LOT. Living in Massachusetts, North Dakota, and other states, Peters moved with her family to Montgomery, Alabama, and stayed through junior high and beginning of high school before moving to Huntsville and graduating high school there. “That was our first trek South, and I fell in love with the area,” Peters says. “Birmingham-Southern was a such an amazing opportunity. They had an amazing track record for getting students into med school, and I knew I wanted to go to med school. The campus prepared me so well for both life and med school.”
Having fallen in love with Birmingham through her BSC experience, Peters stayed for med school at UAB and then matched for her pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital. She started her career at a clinic in Roebuck/Trussville, but when an opportunity became available at Mayfair Medical Group in Homewood, Peters couldn’t turn down the chance to work in the city where she had lived since first coming to medical school. “My first apartment was in Homewood,” Peters says.
After meeting her husband Matthew, who grew up in the Cahaba Heights area, they decided to buy their first home together in Homewood. Peters went to work at Mayfair Medical Group in 2007 and remains there today 18 years later.
Peters, who is the mom of three boys, had her first child one year into her first job and added two more sons in the next six years (Peters’ sons are now in graduate school, college, and a high school junior). “I said from the beginning that faith and family would come first,” Peters says. “But I love my job, and it’s a huge part of who I am. There were times when I had to miss things, but I’m thankful I have a supportive family and for our Homewood community who stepped up to help when I couldn’t be there.”
Peters often mentors her younger partners, sharing knowledge that she has gained throughout her professional career. “That is another one of the rewarding parts of my job—being able to share what I’ve learned with younger women,” Peters says. “When my children were young, I was thankful for our full-time daycare and for after-school care once they were in school, because they were so well cared for, they didn’t realize fully that I wasn’t there all the time. It was when they were older that I wanted extra days so that I could watch them in their activities. So, I balanced it differently than others might.” Peters shares her well-earned knowledge about meal prep and babysitters but also advises on deeper issues of work-life balance as well.
Now 23 years after beginning her practice, Peters still loves what she does. “I love being a pediatrician because of the role I get to play in these family’s lives,” she says. “I take care of kids from them as babies through their college lives, and the impact that I make on not only my patients but their families. I am so honored that these families want me to continue to be part of their lives and their children’s lives.”
