Background: Women represented 55.4% of U.S medical school matriculants in 2023. [1] Parents-in-training report high levels of parental stress. Women more often identify as the primary caregiver, anticipate training extensions, and face barriers to breastfeeding and childcare stress. [2] We aimed to identify opportunities to ease the return to work for birthing parents.
Purpose: We completed a stakeholder analysis of Internal Medicine Residents at Mayo Clinic Rochester, who were birthing parents during the 2023-2024 academic year. We utilized discussion, memoing, and brainstorming to identify areas for intervention.
Description: Stakeholders commonly reported stress, loneliness, and confusion about the return-to-work process. We identified five domains for intervention: childcare, online support groups, lactation, postpartum healthcare, and togetherness. An electronic document was created with resources for each domain. “Childcare” includes childcare options and information regarding back-up childcare and sick childcare. “Online Support Groups” offers social media groups such as Mayo Clinic physician groups and local communities that provide environments to ask questions. “Lactation” provides hospital and clinic lactation locations, milk storage locations and tips for lactation during residency. “Postpartum Care” includes free therapy options, pelvic floor physical therapy and local in-person options to promote selfcare. Lastly, “Togetherness” presents a collection of motivational quotes and experiences from prior resident mothers. We will frequently review the needs of the stakeholders and update the document with current resources.
Conclusions: The transition from maternity leave to residency can be challenging. This initiative will provide resources in my file for returning birthing parents to access in hopes of preventing unnecessary stress, loneliness and confusion.