Occupational Hazard? An Analysis of Birth Outcomes among Physician Mothers

Arbeitspapier

Training to become a physician involves long work hours that can be physically demanding, particularly for surgeons. Are birth outcomes of physician mothers affected as a result? Using Texas birth data from 2007-2014, we compared birth outcomes between physicians and another highly educated group, lawyers, and between surgeons and non-surgeon physicians. Further, using a difference-in-differences framework, we examine whether the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education 2011 duty hour reform, which lowered trainee work hours, impacted the birth outcomes of babies born to physicians compared with lawyers. We find that physicians have lower birth weights and shorter pregnancies than lawyers with the results driven by physicians in surgical specialties. However, the duty hour reform appears to not have impacted birth outcomes. Thus, we find that physicians tend to have worse birth outcomes than lawyers and, in this case, the work reform did little to address the difference.

Object Details

• Language: Englisch

References and Relationships

• Bibliographic citation: Series: IZA Discussion Papers ; No. 16655

Classification and Topics

• Classification: Wirtschaft ; Health Behavior ; Fertility; Family Planning; Child Care; Children; Youth ; Professional Labor Markets; Occupational Licensing ; Energy, Environmental, Health, and Safety Law
• Subject: physicians ; surgeons ; birth outcomes ; birthweight ; pregnancy length ; duty hour reform

Contributors, Places and Time

• Event: Geistige Schöpfung
• (who): Jena, Anupam B. ; Slusky, David ; Springer, Lilly
• Event: Veröffentlichung
• (who): Institute of Labor Economics (IZA)
• (where): Bonn
• (when): 2023

Further information

• Handle: http://hdl.handle.net/10419/282782
• Last update: 10.03.2025, 11:42 AM CET