Plastic surgery trainees face significant barriers to having children
The majority of both men and women said they had intentionally postponed having children owing to the demands of their career, found a survey published in the November 2019 issue of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery.
76.5% of female and 67.4% of male trainee cosmetic surgeons said their residency had caused them to put off having children in an anonymous survey sent to all current plastic surgery residents and fellows in the US.
While both men and women agreed there is a negative stigma attached to being pregnant during residency, women were unsurprisingly significantly more likely to report it, at 70.4% versus 51.1% likelihood for men.
Of the 59% of respondents who were married, female trainees married to a non-physician were significantly more likely to delay starting a family until after training, at 64.7% compared to men married to a non-physician (21.1%).
The mean maternity leave taken by female respondents who reported at least one pregnancy was 5.5 weeks, ranging from one to 12. Nearly half took less than six weeks and 62.3% reported dissatisfaction with the amount of leave they took.
Non-child bearing parental leave averaged at 1.2 weeks, ranging from zero to four weeks. 47% of trainees reported that their residency had a formal parental leave policy.
When it came to breastfeeding, 19.5% of female trainees breastfed for 12 months, compared to 62.5% of female partners of male trainees respondents. Fewer than one third (29.4%) of respondents reported lactation facilities in close proximity to operating rooms.
Female trainees were significantly more likely to disagree with the statement, “attending surgeons and resident colleagues are supportive of pumping during clinical duties”.
