Pregnancy during psychiatry residency : a study of attitudes

Fifty-eight residents at two training sites at Cornell University Medical College responded to our questionnaire on attitudes toward pregnant peers. Male respondents were more likely than female respondents to believe that pregnancy interfered with work performance and to anticipate personal inconvenience from a peer's pregnancy. When residents of each gender were asked to estimate the opposite gender's responses to the same questions, men more accurately hypothesized what their female peers would say. Women overestimated the degree of negative male responses and underestimated male willingness to provide special considerations such as schedule changes for their pregnant colleagues.