CTV News: “Study explores how physicians pay the price for taking parental leave”
Andrea Simpson, an associate professor, spoke to CTV News about her research on the obstacles facing pregnant physicians. The segment also featured Lynn Sterling, an assistant professor.
Sterling, an obstetrician, is a mother of two. While pregnant, she said she was on three medications for nausea and still “showing up to work, operating. I was working until the day before my first delivery. I was literally in the operating room the day before.”
The most challenging part for Sterling was the 24-hour on-call shifts, which happened a few times a month — physically demanding work on your feet, without set breaks or rests, that required technical precision in the delivery room.
Simpson’s study, which includes adjunct lecturer Maria Cusimano on the research team, gathered information from approximately 4,000 physicians and 6,000 pregnancies. It found that physicians either maintained or increased their workload in the first two trimesters, before reducing it in the third.
The paper, “Physician Work Patterns in Pregnancy, Parental Leave, and Return to the Workforce,” was published in JAMA Network in April 2026.
“Overall, physicians took short parental leaves, with surgeons returning the earliest, around 19 weeks after delivery,” said Simpson.
She added that the average parental leave in Canada is between 9 and 12 months; the longest parental leave among physicians is 8 months.
Simpson, who has taken three parental leaves, said that there aren’t enough physicians to fill the gaps, adding that the study “points to opportunities form a population planning standpoint. When we’re thinking about doctor supply, about half of physicians practising in Canada are women. And we have to anticipate that at some point they will be taking parental leave.”
Possible solutions to improve the current situation include gradual returns to work and better lactation facilities.
Simpson is director of residency research for the ob-gyn department and on staff at St. Michael’s Hospital. Cusimano an adjunct lecturer and scientist. Sterling is on staff at Humber River Hospital.
