Parenthood
“Parenthood” refers to the state of being a parent or the role and responsibilities associated with raising and caring for children. It encompasses the various aspects of providing emotional, financial, and physical support to children as they grow and develop. Parenthood involves a lifelong commitment to nurturing, guiding, and protecting the well-being of one's children.
Here are some key aspects of parenthood:
Biological Parenthood:
Biological parenthood is the result of the biological relationship between parents and their offspring. It involves the conception and birth of a child.
Adoptive Parenthood:
Adoptive parenthood occurs when individuals or couples legally adopt a child and take on the responsibilities of raising and caring for that child as their own.
Roles and Responsibilities:
Parents are responsible for meeting the physical, emotional, and educational needs of their children. This includes providing a safe and supportive environment, nurturing emotional well-being, and ensuring access to education and healthcare.
Parental Bonding:
Parental bonding refers to the emotional connection between parents and their children. It is essential for a child's social and psychological development.
Challenges and Rewards:
Parenthood comes with both challenges and rewards. Challenges may include balancing work and family life, managing stress, and addressing the evolving needs of children. Rewards include the joy and fulfillment of seeing children grow, learn, and succeed.
Parenting Styles:
Different parents may adopt various parenting styles based on their beliefs, values, and cultural backgrounds. Common parenting styles include authoritative, authoritarian, permissive, and uninvolved.
Support Systems:
Parents often rely on support systems, including family, friends, and community resources, to navigate the challenges of parenthood.
Parental Influence on Child Development:
Parents play a crucial role in shaping their children's values, beliefs, and behaviors. Positive parenting contributes to healthy child development.
Lifelong Commitment:
Parenthood is a lifelong commitment that extends beyond the childhood years. Even as children become adults, parents continue to play a supportive role in their lives.
Cultural and Societal Influences:
Cultural and societal norms can influence expectations and practices related to parenthood. Different cultures may have unique approaches to parenting.
Co-Parenting:
Co-parenting involves shared parenting responsibilities between two individuals, whether they are a couple, divorced, or separated. Effective communication is key in co-parenting situations.
Parenthood is a complex and multifaceted journey that varies for each individual and family. It is a significant aspect of human life, contributing to the continuity and well-being of societies.
Family and work have immensely changed and become intertwined over the past half century for both man and women. Additionally, alongside to traditional family structures prevalent, other forms of families such as single parents, LGBTQ + parents, and bonus families are becoming more common. Previous studies have shown that surgical trainees regularly leave residency when considering becoming a parent due to the negative stigma associated with pregnancy during training, dissatisfaction with parental leave options, inadequate lactation, and childcare support, and desire for greater mentorship on work-life integration. Indeed, parenthood is one of the factors contributing to attrition in surgical specialties, neurosurgery not being an exception.
The Diversity in Neurosurgery Committee (DC) of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies (EANS) recognizes the challenges individuals face in parenthood with neurosurgery and wishes to address them in a white paper.
Vayssiere et al. will focus on the issues of family planning and neurosurgical practice during pregnancy in an itemized fashion based on an exhaustive literature search and will make recommendations to address the matters raised.
Potential solutions would be to further improve the work-family time ratio as well as improve working conditions in the hospital.
While many obstacles have been quoted in the literature about parenthood in medicine, and neurosurgery specifically, initiatives can and should be undertaken to ensure not only retention of colleagues but also to increase productivity and job satisfaction of those seeking to combine neurosurgery and family life, regardless of their sexual identity and orientation 1)