ACS Revises Statements on Pregnancy, Parental Leave, and Lactation

Recognizing the importance of offering practicing surgeons and surgical trainees continuing support to balance building their families with growing their careers, the ACS Board of Governors revised two 2021 statements in collaboration with several stakeholder groups.

These statements were approved by the ACS Board of Regents at its recent meeting; they subsequently were endorsed by the American Board of Surgery, American Board of Colon and Rectal Surgery, American Board of Neurological Surgery, American Board of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, American Board of Thoracic Surgery, and American Board of Plastic Surgery:

• Revised Statement on the Importance of Workplace Support for Pregnancy, Parental Leave, and Lactation for Practicing Surgeons
• Revised Statement on the Importance of Workplace Support for Pregnancy, Parental Leave, and Lactation for Surgical Trainees

Both statements begin, “The ACS recognizes that a successful surgical career should not preclude a surgeon’s choice to be a parent.”

For their respective demographics, each statement offers a framework for recommendations to be adopted at hospitals and centers of learning that provide support for all aspects of childrearing, while emphasizing that the decision to become a parent “does not detract from one’s full professional commitment to being a surgeon” and, therefore, should not have bearing on career growth or training success.