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Women doctors face considerable challenges navigating family planning, pregnancy and motherhood. Their experiences can have relevance for health system functioning, including doctor retention. This scoping review synthesises research on family planning, fertility, pregnancy and motherhood among women doctors in the EU and the UK.
Scoping review conducted according to JBI best practice guidance.
MEDLINE, CINAHL, Academic Search Complete, PsycInfo and Web of Science were searched, and supplemented with backwards and forwards citation chasing.
Peer-reviewed, original research, in English, focusing on either fertility and family planning, pregnancy and/or motherhood among women doctors in an EU country(s) and/or the UK.
Data were extracted independently by two authors. Data were synthesised using deductive content analysis and collated using narrative synthesis.
In total, 34 studies were identified. Family planning appears complicated by medical careers. Medical specialty choice is particularly impacted, with certain specialties (eg, General Practice) considered particularly family friendly and others markedly less so. Pregnancy complications among women doctors, especially surgeons, were documented. However, women doctors’ and non-doctors’ pregnancy outcomes were overall not significantly different. Notably, doctor-mothers had fewer children and were more likely to report making compromises or facing negative consequences when balancing family and career than doctor-fathers.
Women doctors in the EU and UK report challenges in balancing work and motherhood. With the potential for their experiences to impact on health system functioning and patient outcomes, training bodies and health organisations should take proactive action to better support women doctors and ensure they can remain in the profession and practice in their desired specialty. Future research examining working practices/schedules during pregnancy, breastfeeding experiences, parenting and childcare and maternal mental health will support a better understanding of women doctors’ experiences and facilitate implementation of effective supports.
by Samantha Hertz, Finnegan Klein, Todd L. Bredbenner, Miranda Cosman, Karl J. Jepsen
Developing a strong skeleton during growth is critical for minimizing fractures later in life. Prior work showed that bone mass varied with external bone size, a measure of the outer bone width. We tested how this association affected the identification of children with low bone mass. Radiographs of the nondominant hand of 45 White females and 54 White males, all ~ 8 years old, were assessed and second metacarpal length (Le) and the midshaft outer and inner widths were measured at the 40, 50, and 60% midshaft sites. The average total area (Tt.Ar), a measure of the area enclosed by the periosteal surface, and cortical area (Ct.Ar), a measure of bone mass, were calculated assuming a circular cross-section. Individuals were sorted into tertiles using robustness (Tt.Ar/Le). Z-scores were calculated for Ct.Ar first using the cohort mean and standard deviation and second using each robustness tertile mean and standard deviation. Females and males with Z-scores in the lower 33% range were identified for the group-average and tertile-specific average comparisons. Agreement between the two reference group approaches was determined using Cohen’s kappa statistic for each sex. The percentage of individuals identified with low Ct.Ar depended on whether Z-scores were compared to the group average or tertile-specific averages. When compared to the group average, 67% of females and 56% of males identified with lower Ct.Ar were from the narrowest tertile, whereas 0% of females and 22% of males were from the widest tertile. For females and males, Cohen’s kappa coefficient showed almost perfect agreement for the intermediate tertile (kappa coefficient > 0.84), but agreement was only poor to moderate (kappa coefficient
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