Rationale Currently, students in almost all U.S. allopathic and osteopathic medical schools are faced with a decision between postponing their graduation for 1 year, which also means forfeiting tuition, financial aid, health insurance coverage, and other necessary safety nets, or returning to school immediately after adding a child to their family (through birth or adoption/foster). This means many new mothers and fathers in medical school are concurrently dealing with the stressors of delivery, newborn life, and major family adjustments, all while trying to maintain their academic load, sometimes returning to regularly scheduled classes within 5 days.
Many schools currently lack a parental leave policy at all, while the policies that do exist are often inadequate.
