Cross-cultural communication （137）　

137) Consideration for Pregnant Female Residents: The Situation in the United States
In the previous article (136, Individualism Among Americans), I wrote about the lack of consideration for female residents who became pregnant and gave birth during their training in the United States in the 1980s. Just after I wrote this, an article titled “Pregnancy and Residency” was published in the March 16, 2023, issue of the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), addressing exactly this issue.?

The article begins with an example of a female resident physician the author was involved with during the 1980s and 1990s. This resident became pregnant during her training, developed preeclampsia, and was forced to rest for one month. After giving birth to a premature infant, she resumed her training, but the long hours of training exacerbated her childcare fatigue. Even after completing residency training, one must undergo fellowship training to become a specialist, but the risks associated with pregnancy increase for women in their 30s. The training process in the United States is extremely rigorous for men, and for women who become pregnant during their training, the rigors are even more severe.

Currently, the gender ratio of resident physicians in the United States is nearly equal, with slightly more women. As a result, measures to support pregnant female residents have been gradually implemented over the past 30 years. For example, reduced training hours during pregnancy and unpaid leave of up to 12 weeks. Female physicians now account for half of the medical workforce in the United States. Therefore, these measures for pregnant female physicians are not merely responses to women's needs but necessary measures for the profession of medicine. In other words, measures for pregnant female physicians are not about “compassion for women” but necessary responses for equal members of the medical profession.

Speaking of pregnancy, even in Japan, which faces one of the world's lowest birth rates, the number of female physicians has been increasing at an accelerated pace in recent years. The optimal childbearing age for female physicians coincides with the period of medical training. It seems that the medical community as a whole must now seriously consider appropriate measures for female physicians during this period?or, more broadly, appropriate measures for all physicians, regardless of gender, as members of the medical profession.

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