Introduction

Gastroenterologists generally undergo gastroenterology (GI) training during their childbearing years, making pregnancy while training a highly important topic regarding family-work balance. The aim of this study is to assess the challenges GI trainees encounter during pregnancy and parenthood.

Aims & Methods

A questionnaire was sent out via social media and email, targeting doctors who were pregnant or had a pregnant partner during their GI training in the last 10 years.

Results

Forty-six women (mean age 35.5 ±3.76, 93.4% from European countries). Of these, 56.5% had one pregnancy during training, 30.4% had two and 13.1% had three pregnancies. Fifteen males (mean age 35.2 ±3.76, 93.3% from European countries) also answered the questionnaire. Age at first pregnancy was similar between males (30.6 years) and females (30.5 years).
Most women (84.7%) reported worrying that they would be perceived negatively when they asked for changes in their work schedule due to the pregnancy. While 67.4% reported that their colleagues were accommodating, only 56.5% felt that it was easy to talk to their training coordinators about the pregnancy. Furthermore, 69.5% were concerned that the pregnancy would negatively impact their training.
Nearly all women participants (97.8%) were working more than 40 hours before the pregnancy. Of these, 78.2%, 63% and 32.6% continued to work more than 40 hours per week in the first, second and third trimesters, respectively. Worryingly, 56.5% had at least one complication during pregnancy or delivery. Participants reported several hazards that weren’t addressed during pregnancy, namely exposure to non-scavenged anaesthetic gases (47.8%), scope locator (36.9%), blood-borne illnesses (34.8%) and radiation (15.2%), and long endoscopy sessions (28.2%).
Of the participants who had returned to work after the birth of the child (n=44 females, n=15 males), men worked full-time more often than women (92.9% vs 59.5%, p=0.02).
Both genders had difficulty coping with parenthood, with only 19% of women and 33.3% of men stating that it was easy to adapt to being back at work and having a young child (p=0.25). They also reported feeling less productive at work than before (females: 54.8%, males: 40%, p=0.32).
Regarding the responsibility of caring for the child when they are unwell, 92.9% of the men reported that the child is taken care of by the other partner. In contrast, women reported it was themselves (36.4%) or other relatives (34.1%) who took care of the child; only 12.6% stated it was her partner who did it. Women reported feeling guilty towards colleagues for taking time off work to be with their child (35% females vs 6.7% males, p=0.03.)
Trainees felt that having children will impair their career progress (56.1% females, 40% males, p=0.29). However, females were more often convinced that having children made them appear less ambitious than their peers (60.4%), compared to males (26.7%), (p=0.02).

Conclusion

Pregnant trainees face numerous concerns during their pregnancy, both physical and psychological. Training centres need to carry out a formal risk assessment for all pregnant trainees to address possible hazards. Whilst parenthood strongly impacts on both male and female trainees, women tend to carry more burden regarding care for the child. There is the need to support and normalize pregnancy and parenthood during training, to achieve a healthy family-life-work balance.