Pregnancy and parental leave among plastic surgery residents in Canada: a nationwide survey of attitudes and experiences

Small surgical residency programs like plastic surgery can be challenging environments to accommodate parental leave. This study aimed to report the experiences, attitudes and perceived support of Canadian plastic surgery residents, recent graduates and staff surgeons with respect to pregnancy and parenting during training. Residents and staff surgeons were invited via email to participate in an online survey. The results presented here explore experiences of pregnancy and parental leave of current plastic surgery residents and staff surgeons. Residents' and staff surgeons' perceptions of program director support, policies, negative comments and the impact of parental leave on the workload of others were also explored. Although the findings suggest that there may be improvements in the support of program directors, there continues to be a negative attitude in surgical culture toward pregnancy during residency. The perceived confusion of respondents with respect to program-specific policies emphasizes the need for open conversations and standardization of parental leave.