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Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia

OBJECTIVES: To identify barriers and enablers to motherhood experienced by female doctors in Australia. METHODS: Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 18 female physician-mothers in Australia, during March and May 2020. Interview data were examined using thematic analysis to extra...

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Autores principales: Collie, Erika, Lew, Raelia, Peate, Michelle
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: SAGE Publications 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9310336/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35866692
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17455057221114268
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author Collie, Erika
Lew, Raelia
Peate, Michelle
author_facet Collie, Erika
Lew, Raelia
Peate, Michelle
author_sort Collie, Erika
collection PubMed
description OBJECTIVES: To identify barriers and enablers to motherhood experienced by female doctors in Australia. METHODS: Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 18 female physician-mothers in Australia, during March and May 2020. Interview data were examined using thematic analysis to extract key themes. RESULTS: Six key barriers and seven key enablers were identified. Barriers (B1–6) largely reflected structural and cultural issues operating within health services and the wider medical profession. Barriers were the experience of working in medicine (B1); demands of postgraduate specialty training (B2); attitudes towards mothers in medicine (B3); gender inequality (B4); insufficient entitlements and support (B5); and competing priorities, conflicting roles (B6). Enablers were supportive partnerships (E1); break from traditional gender roles (E2); capacity to delegate/outsource (E3); doctors supporting doctors (E4); flexible work arrangements (E5); increasing acceptance and support (E6); and capacity to combine career and family (E7). CONCLUSION: This was the first qualitative study to explore motherhood experiences among female doctors in Australia. Participants reported structural and cultural barriers during all stages of motherhood. The mismatch between identified barriers and available supports reveals opportunities for improving the experience of physician-mothers.
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spelling pubmed-93103362022-07-26 Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia Collie, Erika Lew, Raelia Peate, Michelle Womens Health (Lond) Advancing Maternal Health Equity OBJECTIVES: To identify barriers and enablers to motherhood experienced by female doctors in Australia. METHODS: Semi-structured telephone interviews were conducted with 18 female physician-mothers in Australia, during March and May 2020. Interview data were examined using thematic analysis to extract key themes. RESULTS: Six key barriers and seven key enablers were identified. Barriers (B1–6) largely reflected structural and cultural issues operating within health services and the wider medical profession. Barriers were the experience of working in medicine (B1); demands of postgraduate specialty training (B2); attitudes towards mothers in medicine (B3); gender inequality (B4); insufficient entitlements and support (B5); and competing priorities, conflicting roles (B6). Enablers were supportive partnerships (E1); break from traditional gender roles (E2); capacity to delegate/outsource (E3); doctors supporting doctors (E4); flexible work arrangements (E5); increasing acceptance and support (E6); and capacity to combine career and family (E7). CONCLUSION: This was the first qualitative study to explore motherhood experiences among female doctors in Australia. Participants reported structural and cultural barriers during all stages of motherhood. The mismatch between identified barriers and available supports reveals opportunities for improving the experience of physician-mothers. SAGE Publications 2022-07-22 /pmc/articles/PMC9310336/ /pubmed/35866692 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17455057221114268 Text en © The Author(s) 2022 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page(https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
spellingShingle Advancing Maternal Health Equity
Collie, Erika
Lew, Raelia
Peate, Michelle
Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia
title Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia
title_full Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia
title_fullStr Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia
title_full_unstemmed Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia
title_short Merging motherhood and medicine: A qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in Australia
title_sort merging motherhood and medicine: a qualitative study exploring barriers and enablers to motherhood among female doctors in australia
topic Advancing Maternal Health Equity
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9310336/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35866692
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/17455057221114268
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