Just 47% of female doctors found it easy to set up maternity leave – survey

The survey also suggests that choices around having a family affects how 59% of female doctors choose their speciality — with life as a GP seen as more ‘family-friendly’ than surgery. Picture: iStock

Female doctors should not be penalised for starting a family, but almost 70% feel going on maternity leave creates a burden for their colleagues, Irish research shows.

In addition, almost all female doctors who had fertility treatment (86%) had difficulty balancing it and their work obligations.

This is against a backdrop where almost half of all doctors in Ireland are women.

Researchers at the University of Galway, supported by the Medical Protection Society (MPS) Foundation, surveyed more than 770 female doctors.

They found 69% felt going on maternity leave caused a burden for other staff on their team.

Just 47% found it easy to arrange maternity leave with their training programme, and the same amount were unhappy with how long the leave lasted.

'Family-friendly' medical career 

Choices around having a family or rearing children influenced how 59% of female doctors chose their speciality, with life as a GP seen as more family-friendly than surgery.

The survey is part of the ongoing Medicine and Motherhood (Mam) research run by the University of Galway.

Lead author Sinéad Lydon called for discussion around fertility, family planning, pregnancy, and motherhood among female doctors, adding that this should consider the connection between these issues and the recruitment or retention of doctors for the HSE. 

"So far, the findings show that the path to motherhood is not always straightforward for women doctors,” she said.

The survey shows better support during infertility is needed, as well as for maternity leave, she added: 

Identifying and removing barriers will be vital for women doctors, but also in retaining passionate and skilled doctors in the Irish health service. 

“We must do all we can to ensure medicine remains an attractive and viable career path for all.”

The team also reviewed EU research, saying these issues are “essential” to improving recruitment.

The team added: “It is crucial to ensure women doctors are not penalised for starting a family and are rather supported in balancing work with family and in maintaining good health.”

MPS Foundation chair Prof Gozie Offiah said it is “long overdue” to better understand how complex motherhood is for female doctors.

MPS Foundation chair Dr Gozie Offiah is an associate professor and director of curriculum at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Picture: rcsi.com

“It is a challenge the profession can no longer afford to overlook,” she said.

The team also includes researchers from around Ireland, such as Prof Keelin O’Donoghue of University College Cork, and GP Dr Sarah Fitzgibbon, founder of the Women in Medicine in Ireland Network.

The most recent Irish Medical Council workforce report shows that, by 2024, 47.2% of doctors were female, up from 46.8% in 2022. When it analysed gender by age, it found “a close to 50/50 split can be observed in all but the older group (55 and older), with just over two thirds (67.4%) of doctors being male”.

On Wednesday, the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation and the Irish Medical Organisation (IMO) raised concerns about access to maternity leave and finding replacements for women going on leave from the HSE.

Dr Rachel McNamara, of the IMO, said: “I know doctors who’ve worked the day after miscarrying because there’s so little slack built into teams that they feel if they don’t go in then patients’ lives will be put at risk.”

• Niamh Griffin, Health Correspondent