Want to start a family? Medical school faculty members might want to investigate how much paid parental leave they’re eligible for. It might not be as much as many professional associations recommend.

In fact, some experts suggest that parental leave policies for some medical schools could use some updates to keep up with the needs of today’s faculty members — and their families. Revamps might also help with attracting new faculty and keeping the faculty they already have.

The Recommendations vs The Reality

The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) endorses as “essential” at least 8 weeks of fully paid parental leave, which includes maintenance of full benefits. Also, according to ACOG, the people who should be eligible for this leave include pregnant workers, their partners, surrogates, and parents of newly adopted children.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the American Medical Association both endorse 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave.

But medical school faculty themselves may not be benefiting from those recommendations when they decide to have a family.

When one research team examined parental leave policies in US medical schools, they found that many medical schools aren’t following the recommendations from major medical associations for paid parental leave polices. They examined policies from 134 allopathic medical schools and found that the schools that offered paid parental leave offered an average of 6.72 weeks for birthing parents and an average of 5.82 weeks for nonbirthing parents.

Only one fifth, or 29 of 134, of the schools offered parental leave policies to their faculty that provided for 12 weeks of leave with full compensation, according to the study, which was published in Medical Education Online in 2025.

Similarly, a JAMA Network Open study published in 2023 found that only 63 of 90 medical schools ranked by the U.S. News & World Report in 2020 offered some paid leave for birth mothers, but only 13 offered 12 weeks of fully paid leave to them. Also, while 11 medical schools offered 12 weeks of fully paid leave for nonbirth parents, 38 did not offer any paid leave for nonbirth parents. No paid leave was available for adoptive parents in 35 of the schools.

“We are very far behind what we advocate for our patients,” said oncologist Shikha Jain, MD, who founded Women in Medicine and co-authored the JAMA Network Open study.

Plus, they may not be keeping up with some other industries, including industries that don’t even have a direct connection to healthcare, noted Maria Trapenasso, senior vice president and national practice leader of Human Capital Solutions for NFP. For example, it’s not uncommon to see 18-20 weeks of parental leave offered in the finance industry, she said. “They just really want to make sure employees are taken care of, and they have the money to do it,” Trapenasso said.

Researcher Rebecca S. Lufler, PhD, an associate professor of medical education with the Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, remembers being shocked that so many institutions didn’t offer longer leave to their faculty members. Her employer offered 12 weeks, which allowed her time to heal from C-section surgery, as well as time to adjust to caring for a new baby.

“I feel very fortunate to work at an institution that does have a very good parental leave policy,” said Lufler, who was a co-author of the Medical Education Online study.

Recruitment and Retention

Work-related burnout is common among mid-career medical school faculty, and it’s more common among women, according to a survey published in JAMA Network Open in 2024. Concern over burnout, which is often linked with career dissatisfaction and attrition, continues to grow. Planning a career often bumps up against concerns about fertility and having a family, too.

Some research supports the premise that providing more robust support to faculty and medical students can help mitigate the burnout that drives away some from the workforce or creates job dissatisfaction. For example, a randomized clinical trial published in JAMA in May detailed the effectiveness of a parental support package to childbearing physicians in training in decreasing postpartum burnout.

Adjusting parental leave policies could be another strategy.

“It may be timely for medical schools to re-evaluate and reflect upon the adequacy of their parental leave offerings and how closely they align with current medical associations’ recommendations in terms of both length and compensation,” wrote the Medical Education Online study authors, which included Lufler.

They went on to suggest that institutions align their parental leave for academic faculty with the current literature and medical associations’ evidence-based recommendations, including those for full continuation of benefits and full compensation.

Lufler suggested that medical schools could adjust their parental leave policies to align with the recommendations from professional associations as one strategy to help with retention.

“You want to be known for being the best, most supportive institution for your faculty,” Lufler said. “When you have a very happy, well-supported community of faculty, that’s ultimately going to trickle down” to students and others affiliated with the institution.

Trapenasso also suggested that parental leave policies can be effective recruitment and retention tools for faculty.

“The generations in the workforce today put a lot more value on flexible time off and paid time off. They want to spend time with their families. That’s something that they value,” she said. “So when you have these policies that help an employee take care of themselves and their families, that’s in the forefront for them,” she said. “Employees are not going to go anywhere if you’re treating them well.”

Jain agreed that organizations will benefit. “It’s the right thing to do, but on top of that, it helps the bottom line,” she said.

Improvements in parental leave for trainees may need to be next on the agenda, according to Rosa Polan, MD, who co-authored a 2022 commentary titled “The Motherhood Penalty in Obstetrics and Gynecology Training” for Obstetrics & Gynecology. She noted that it can be complicated for trainees to take enough time off to welcome a new child, let alone receive full compensation for that time.

“I don’t think anybody is excited about taking off uncompensated leave,” Polan said. 

Plus, some culture change may be necessary because many worry about putting pressure on their colleagues by taking time off to welcome a new baby to their family.

“Medicine is a profession where there is this culture of putting yourself last and sacrificing for patients and other people and that’s very revered, and working very hard is very revered,” she added. “When you have a baby, you are naturally putting your own needs before other people, and there’s some stigma associated with that and there’s some guilt associated with that.”

Ask, Don’t Assume

Change is definitely needed, according to Jain. Ideally, physicians would have access to fully paid maternity or paternity leave to bond with their new baby. Plus, she added, organizations need to make sure that physicians who take paid parental leave don’t suffer any penalties, financial or otherwise, for taking leave.

“This culture needs to shift to supporting new parents instead of penalizing them,” Jain said. “And when you have people in leadership who understand that because they have gone through it, I think it changes the dialogue.”

In the meantime, Lufler said she encourages anyone looking at a faculty position to find out about the parental leave and compensation policy on the front end.

“There’s just so much variability in parental leave policies,” said Lufler. “So the biggest takeaway is to be aware and look into whatever policy is available at that institution.”

No reported disclosures.