Week 11: Maternity

 As doctors and physicians, one would expect the workforce of hospitals and clinics to be parent friendly. However, that is not the case. In 2017 JAMA released the results of a survey which results read that 4 in 5 mothers working in medicine were discriminated against for having children. These ranged from derogatory comments to expulsion from decision making. This greatly contributes to the disparity of the male to female ratio in the medical field. Many female students reported comments about mothers, and were encouraged to pick another field if a baby was in future plans. ""If you become chief resident are you just going to get pregnant and have a baby?" asked the silver-haired male attending physician as I sat interviewing for the prestigious academic position of chief internal medicine resident. "That's what all the female chiefs do, and I'm tired of it,"" Alexandra Sawa reported an interviewer asking her. Despite the knowledge that comes with the medical field about babies and mothers, and the expectancy of working with children, medicine does not make room for mothers or their babies. Staff tend to push mothers around for perceived faults that occurred since having a child. It doesn't help that there is often no place for working doctors to breastfeed. Many women who work are expected to stay home in maternity leave, but doctors' maternity leave can be varied and sometimes result in doctors having to work odd hours in order to breastfeed their child.