Overhaul medical education to support female residents

While physicians recommend that their patients take time off work to bond with their new babies, 30 percent of the women who gave birth during their medical residencies took a mere four weeks for maternity leave. And that needs to change.

Although the number of women studying to be doctors continues to rise, industry experts note that few moves have been made to incorporate maternity leave into medical education.

Still, creating meaningful change within medical education will be an uphill battle. Today, many young women are advised by their male mentors to put off having children until after their residency. What’s needed is a change in the conversation, Karen Law, M.D., residency program director at Emory University School of Medicine, told The Boston Globe.

Leaders in medical education need to get real about the fact that putting off pregnancy during residency cuts into eight to 10 years of a woman’s prime time to bear a child, according to Law.

One new program that stands out is the American Board of Surgery's “five in six pathway,” reports the Globe. The program, which allows residents to extend their clinical training from five to six years, can be used to take off up to a year. While created with the needs of mothers in mind, both women and men are open to apply.

“Having a healthy outside life in terms of relationships and also your personal physical and mental health is really important,” Jo Buyske, associate executive director at the American Board of Surgery, who has received more than 30 applications to the program this year, told the newspaper.