A surgeon, a doctor and a baby - combining parenthood with a medical career

Double-physician couples being parents have been shown to face greater difficulties in combining their private and professional lives when compared to other couples. In the present study, we aimed to analyze how double-physician couples manage to arrange their roles in their private and professional lives and how compatible their individual idea of being a mother or a father is with their career as a physician. Fifteen couples being parents and consisting of either two surgeons or a surgeon and a nonsurgeon were asked to participate in a survey to determine the average maternity or paternity leave, the reduction of hours worked per week after the birth of a child, and the need for professional childcare and additional support in childcare from relatives or babysitters per week. Furthermore, the couples were asked to mark on a six-item Likert scale how compatible their professional life is with their idea of being parents. The average maternity or paternity leave was 13 +/- 2 months per child and the mean reduction of hours worked per week was 30 +/- 12%. The couples made use of professional childcare for 41 +/- 6 h/week on average and needed additional support in childcare from relatives or babysitters for 5 +/- 3 h/week. On the Likert scale from "completely incompatible (0)" to "perfectly compatible (5)", the mean compatibility of professional and private lives was rated 2.5 +/- 1.1. Becoming parents significantly influences the professional and private lives of double-physician couples. The relatively low compatibility of double-physician couples' private and professional lives might lead to relevant work-home conflicts. Such conflicts have been proven to be associated with surgeons not recommending surgery as a career. Therefore, efforts should be made to improve the compatibility of parenthood and a medical career.