Parenthood and Medical Training: Challenges and Experiences of Physician Moms in the US

Phenomenon: Balancing the demands of medical training and parenthood is challenging. We explored perceptions of programmatic support, parental leave, breastfeeding, and self-reported biggest challenges among a large cohort of physician mothers in a variety of medical specialties and across the stage of training when they had their first child. Our goal was to inform strategies to help improve the physician parent experience. Approach: This cross-sectional, observational survey study was performed using a convenience sample from an online physician-mom support group from January to February 2018. Descriptive statistics and bivariate analyses were used to report results and examine relationships between career stage at first child and outcome variables. Responses to the open-ended question, "What is your biggest challenge as a physician mom?" were qualitatively analyzed. Findings: The survey received 896 complete responses. The most common specialties were obstetrics and gynecology (25.3%), pediatrics (19.9%), internal medicine or medicine/pediatrics (17.1%), and family medicine (10.2%). The majority of participants (63.9%) had their first child during medical training, including medical school (14.3%), residency (35.8%) or fellowship (13.6%). Medical students were less likely to perceive programmatic support than residents or fellows (44.1% vs. 63.1% vs. 62.3%, respectively), and only 19.9% of participants who became parents during medical training reported having a clear and adequate parental leave policy. Nearly 70% of participants breastfed for six months or more, with no statistical differences across career stage. Most participants (57.6%) delayed child-bearing for one or more reasons, with 32.3% delaying to complete training. The most common codes applied to responses for 'biggest challenges as a physician mom' were insufficient time, lack of work-life balance, missing out, and over-expectation. Insights: Physician mothers, particularly those who had their first child during training, continue to struggle with support from training programs, finding work-life balance, and feelings of inadequacy. Interventions such as clear and adequate leave policies, program-sponsored or onsite childcare and improved programmatic support of breastfeeding and pumping may help to ameliorate the challenges described by our participants.