“…Choosing a career in academic medicine is often influenced by factors like the training environment and interaction with faculty, mentors, role models, or family (Borges, Navarro, & Grover, 2012). Balancing personal and professional lives requires making value-based choices, setting boundaries, making trade-offs, and taking cyclic decisions based on multiple life events, such as completing residency, developing longterm relationships, childbearing and pursuing career options (Brown, Fluit, Lent, & Herbert, 2011). Women surgeons often struggle to achieve this balance with their decision to have children, and fear criticism for their decisions.…”