No abstract

(Anesth Analg. 2020;130:1296–1302) Over the last 2 decades, rates of women entering medical school have risen to near parity with men. However, despite gender equivalence in medical school enrollment, rates of female anesthesiologists lag severely behind. Though data are lacking in anesthesiology, causes of the leadership and specialty gaps for surgical residencies have been reviewed in recent publications, finding potential deterrents such as changing career plans due to motherhood, lack of formally institutionalized maternity leave policies, gender discrimination, perceived stigma associated with pregnancy, and perceived incompatibility of surgery with rewarding family life. In congruence with these findings for surgery, a study of major medical specialties determined anesthesiology to have the highest rate of maternal discrimination. The aim of this study was to survey women members of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) to better understand motherhood-related factors associated with women’s likelihood to recommend against a career in anesthesiology.

(Anesth Analg. 2019;128(6):e109–e112) Because of the fact that recovery from childbirth is a crucial period in a woman’s life, experts in a number of medical communities have issued policy statements on parental leave and breastfeeding accommodations for physicians. However, the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) has not put forth any guidelines on either parental leave or breastfeeding arrangements. Previous research has been conducted to study how female surgeons’ careers are affected by childbearing, but there are no studies that examine how parental leave and breastfeeding would influence an anesthesiologist’s professional career. The aim of this study was to record information on women working in anesthesiology to understand their impressions on pregnancy, childbirth, recovery from childbirth, and lactation in the context of their career.

While the literature regarding physicians’ childbearing experiences is growing, there are no studies documenting those of anesthesiologists. We surveyed a convenience sample of 72 female anesthesiologists to obtain pilot data. Sixty-six women completed the survey (91.7% response rate), reporting 113 total births from before 1990 to present. Of all birth experiences, proportions of respondents reporting parental leave, lactation facilities, and lactation duration as adequate were 52.3%, 45.2%, and 58.3%, respectively. Most mothers (51.8%) gave birth to their first child while they were trainees. The majority (94.9%) favored an official statement supporting parental leave. These results may serve as groundwork for larger studies.

BACKGROUND: The proportion of women medical school graduates in the United States has grown substantially; however, representation of women in anesthesiology lags behind. We sought to investigate factors associated with women recommending against a career in anesthesiology due to obstacles related to motherhood. METHODS: We surveyed 9525 women anesthesiologist members of the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) with a web-based survey distributed via e-mail. Associations between whether women would counsel against anesthesiology due to obstacles related to motherhood and 34 related categorical variables were estimated. Fisher exact test was used for categorical binary variables, and Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test was used for ranked variables. RESULTS: The response rate for the primary question was 19.2%. Among the 1827 respondents to the primary question, 11.6% would counsel a female medical student against a career in anesthesiology due to obstacles pertaining to motherhood. Counseling against an anesthesiology career was not associated with ever being pregnant (P = .16), or whether a woman was pregnant during residency or fellowship training (P = .41) or during practice (P = .16). No association was found between counseling against anesthesiology and training factors: total number of weeks of maternity leave (P = .18), the percentage of women faculty (P = .96) or residents (P = .34), or the number of pregnant coresidents (P = .66). Counseling against a career in anesthesiology was significantly associated with whether respondents’ desired age of childbearing/motherhood and desired number of children were adversely affected by work demands (with Bonferroni adjustment for the 34 comparisons, both P < .0001). The risk ratio of respondents whose desired childbearing age and desired number of children were affected by work demands counseling against a career in anesthesiology was 5.1 compared to women whose desired childbearing age and desired number of children were not affected (99% confidence interval [CI], 3.3–7.9; P < .0001; odds ratio, 6.2). CONCLUSIONS: In this study of 1827 women anesthesiologists, approximately 1 in 10 would counsel a student against a career in anesthesiology due to obstacles pertaining to motherhood, and this was associated with altering one’s timing and number of children due to job demands. Further research is needed to understand how women’s perception of a career in anesthesiology is related to factors influencing personal choices. Understanding women’s perceptions of motherhood in anesthesiology may help leaders support career longevity and personal satisfaction in this growing cohort of anesthesiologists.