The DOI matches its Crossref record.
Pregnancy among residents enrolled in general surgery (PREGS): a survey of residents in a single Canadian training program
Open accessAbstract
BACKGROUND: Interest in general surgery has declined, and lack of adequate accommodation for pregnancy and parenting may be a deterrent. We explored resident experiences with these issues within a single general surgery program. METHODS: We surveyed residents enrolled in the University of British Columbia general surgery program from 1997 to 2009 using a Web-based survey tool. Information regarding demographics, pregnancy, postpartum issues and issues pertaining to maternity/parenting policies was obtained. We used the Student t test, Z test and Fisher exact test for statistical comparisons. RESULTS: Of the 81 residents surveyed, 53 responded (65% response rate). There were fewer pregnancies during residency among female residents than among partners of male residents (PMRs; 9 pregnancies for 6 of 25 residents v. 23 pregnancies for 15 of 28 PMRs, p = 0.002). One of 9 pregnancies among female residents and 5 of 23 among PMRs ended in miscarriage (p > 0.99). Female residents and PMRs reported pregnancy-related complications with equal frequency. All female residents breastfed for at least 6 months; however, 67% (4 of 6) felt their resident role prevented them from breastfeeding as long as they would have liked. Most (5 of 6, 83%) pursued a graduate degree or research during their "maternity leave." More than 50% of residents reported that their own workload increased because of a colleague's pregnancy. Many (36 of 53, 68%) were unaware of the existence of any maternity/parenting policy, and most were in favour of instituting such a policy. CONCLUSION: Resident mothers do not breastfeed for the desired duration, and precluding factors must be explored. Contingency plans are needed so colleagues are not overburdened when pregnant residents cannot perform clinical duties. General surgery programs must have a formal policy addressing these issues.
Overview
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Verification
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
The source backs part of the claim, not all of it — or backs it for a different population, condition or comparison.
In the citing paper
“Having such policies and plans will provide for greater happiness among everyone concerned [26].”
From How Can We Reduce Attrition in General Surgery Residents? (2018) · cites this paper as [26]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“Non-academic factors may be more important in predicting attrition [26].”
From How Can We Reduce Attrition in General Surgery Residents? (2018) · cites this paper as [26]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measuredThe check wasn’t confident either way, so it gives no verdict — never disputed.
In the citing paper
“While medical student applicants must be academically acceptable, non-academic factors may be more important [26].”
From How Can We Reduce Attrition in General Surgery Residents? (2018) · cites this paper as [26]
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Citations
Cites
No references could be resolved yet.
Research works printed but not linked: 18
- Sanfey HA, Saalwachter-Schulman A, Nyhof-Young J, et al. Influ- ences on medical student career choice. Arch Surg 2006;141:1086-94.
- Marschall JG, Karimuddin A. Decline in popularity of general surgery as a career choice in North America: review of postgraduate residency training selection in Canada, 1996-2001. World J Surg 2003;27:249-52.
- Evans S, Sarani B. The modern medical school graduate and general surgical training: Are they compatible? Arch Surg 2002;137:274-7.
- Park J, Minor S, Taylor R, et al. Why are women deterred from gen- eral surgery training? Am J Surg 2005;190:141-6.
- Finch SJ. Pregnancy during residency: a literature review. Acad Med 2003;78:418-28.
- Ferris LE, Mackinnon S, Mizgala C, et al. Do Canadian female sur- geons feel discriminated against as women? CMAJ 1996;154:21-7.
- Gjerdingen DK, Chaloner KM, Vanderscoff JA. Family practice resi- dents' maternity leave experiences and benefits. Fam Med 1995; 27:512-8.
- Carty SE, Colson YL, Garvey LS, et al. Maternity policy and prac- tice during surgery residency: how we do it. Surgery 2002;132:682-7.
- Cole S, Arnold M, Sanderson A, et al. Pregnancy during otolaryngology residency: experience and recommendations. Am Surg 2009;75:411-5.
- Mayer KL, Ho H, Goodnight J. Childbearing and child care in surgery. Arch Surg 2001;136:649-55.
- Sayres M, Wyshak G, Denterlein G, et al. Pregnancy during resi- dency. N Engl J Med 1986;314:418-23.
- Phelan ST. Pregnancy during residency: obstetric complications. Obstet Gynecol 1988;72:431-6.
- Grunebaum A, Minkoff H, Blake D. Pregnancy among obstetricians: a comparison of births before, during and after residency. Am J Obstet Gynecol 1987;157:79-83.
- Walker JJ. Pre-eclampsia. Lancet 2000;356:1260-5.
- Klebanoff MA, Shiono P, Rhoads G. Outcomes of pregnancy in a national sample of resident physicians. N Engl J Med 1990;323:1040-5.
- Jagsi R, Tarbell NJ, Weinstein NF. Becoming a doctor, starting a family-leaves of absence from graduate medical education. N Engl J Med 2007;357:1889-91.
- Lerner LB, Baltrushes R, Stolzmann K, et al. Satisfaction of women urologists with maternity leave and childbirth timing. J Urol 2010; 183:282-6.
- Aday L, Cornelius L. Designing and conducting health surveys. 3rd ed. San Francisco (CA): Wiley; 2006. Readers of CJS can subscribe to email alerts to receive the table of contents by email when a new issue appears. Sign up now at cma.ca/cjs. Les lecteurs du JCC peuvent souscrire aux info courriels pour recevoir un avis par courriel pour chaque nouveau numéro. Inscrivez-vous dès maintenant à amc.ca/cjs.
Cited by
How Can We Reduce Attrition in General Surgery Residents?
DM, A. (2018) · Austin Journal of Surgery · doi:10.26420/austinjsurg.2018.1129 · Cited by 1
Department of Surgery, T. U. O. A., M Avery, D., G Harrell, A., Department of Surgery, T. U. O. A., C Wallace, J., Department of Surgery, T. U. O. A., E Geno, C., Department of Family, I. &. R. M., Taylor, G., University of Alabama School of Medicine, U., et al. (2018) · International Journal of Innovative Surgery · doi:10.33582/2639-9229/1003 · Cited by 1
Metadata
- Authors
- Merchant, S.
- Affiliations
- University of British Columbia (CA)
- Corresponding author
- Merchant, Shaila
- ORCID
- Merchant, Shaila
- Venue
- Canadian Journal of Surgery
- Publisher
- CMA Joule Inc.
- Published
- 2011-12-01
- Volume
- 54
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 375-380
- ISSN
- 0008-428X (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC3238337
- OpenAlex
- W2047141926
- Cited by
- 43
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 5 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 4 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 1 · 2014: 2 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- FWCI
- 5.51
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Canadian Journal of Surgery (publishedVersion)
- Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Diversity and Career in Medicine
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Work-Family Balance Challenges
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Reproductive Health and Contraception
- Keywords
- pregnancy during residency, general surgery residents, maternity leave, parenting policy, breastfeeding, postpartum complications, miscarriage, resident workload, graduate medical education, female residents
- MeSH terms
- Adult, Attitude of Health Personnel, Breast Feeding, Canada, Female, Humans, Internship and Residency, Male, Pregnancy, Surveys and Questionnaires, General Surgery, Parental Leave, Workload
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
How to cite
Cite CoChat for the checks on this page, and the paper for its own findings.
- This page
- CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Pregnancy among residents enrolled in general surgery (PREGS): a survey of residents in a single Canadian training program. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1503/cjs.015710
- The paper
- Merchant, S. (2011). Pregnancy among residents enrolled in general surgery (PREGS): a survey of residents in a single Canadian training program. Canadian Journal of Surgery. https://doi.org/10.1503/cjs.015710
