TLDR - ask about new parent electives as these are becoming increasingly common in some specialties and will make your life easier. Also, be wary of programs that assure you that "research time" can be used for pregnancy/postpartum. And ask to talk to current residents who are parents of small children.
@MedGrl@2022 I know I'm seeing this late (such is the life of an intern!) but I hope that my experiences in this regard might be helpful to you. Ask about family friendliness (everyone will say they are family friendly of course, so ask for specific examples of how they have supported parents in their residency programs), ask about specific electives (in certain residencies, a "new parent elective" is becoming more common), and ask to be connected to residents who are parents to answer more of your specific questions (where you also don't have to worry about hogging time for a subject that may be less relevant to other applicants, and/ or being judged for your questions).
I tried looking information up online about this, but it's ridiculously hard to find specifics or really be able to do an apples-to-apples comparison of programs. So I just asked on most interviews and figured if I was judged for it that was a sign that the residency was unlikely to be family friendly (but I guess I had the luxury of feeling like a was a pretty solid applicant in a noncompetitive field). I made my top 5 programs list based on other factors (but also thinking that probably I'd like to start my family ASAP). Then I found out a few days before rank lists were due that I was pregnant. I quickly wrote to all of my top 5 programs informing them of my pregnancy and asking what leave I would be able to take.
A few things to keep in mind: Most likely, having a baby intern year you will not be eligible for FMLA/PFML regardless of program. Baring unusual circumstances you won't have worked for a hospital system for 12 months (the requirement for FMLA) and you won't have paid enough taxes (unless you had a very sweet med school gig and stayed in the same state) to qualify for any state paid family or medical leave. So you will be entirely at the mercy of what your program offers, which frankly is often not much for interns (but is still highly variable!).
So here's how things shook out for me. My top ranked program didn't have any examples of interns who had had kids, and no special parenting elective, but were open to the idea of creating something like this. I think I came off as a little pushy to the program director who may have ranked me lower (who knows where I was originally on their list) as so even though I took a gamble leaving them in my top spot I didn't match with them. My original #2 program, which did have a new parent elective and sold themselves as family friendly (had connected me with resident parents, etc.) came back with a surprisingly unaccommodating reply from the chief residents. Something like "Congrats! Yes, we technically have that elective, but there wouldn't be room for it in your schedule as an intern. There's no easy way to group your outpatient time for when you're near the end of pregnancy/ returning from leave. Also, you couldn't take all the leave your technically eligible for in this state without delaying your graduation." I appreciated the honesty but the reply was off-putting enough that I bumped them to my #3 spot. My original #3 program said they had nothing for me, and the max time out I could have was 6 weeks (that would have to be made up except for 3 weeks vacation), which got them moved to my #5 spot. My #4 program didn't get back to me in time, but I remembered they did have a new parenting elective, and multiple parents in their residency, so they got bumped to #2 and that's where I ultimately matched. It was still tough to get an "ideal" pregnancy/ postpartum schedule, but ultimately they let me group 4 weeks vacation, 2 weeks unpaid leave, 4 weeks new parenting elective and 6 weeks of outpatient for around my due date (though I will likely have to make up time that I'm out). The most generous parental leave policy (12 weeks paid, for everyone, not having to be made up) came from my original #5 program, which was a program I genuinely liked, though it is marginally less prestigious than others on the list and paid residents about $15k less per year than most of the other programs (for a similar cost of living), which it seemed would go a good ways towards the cost of daycare. I still sometimes think about what it would have been like had I gone there instead (the program I am in has an INTENSE work culture, and I violated duty hours at 38weeks pregnant, which is just kind of par for the course here). But overall I am quite happy with how things worked out.
Good luck, and if you have more specific questions (or want names of programs) feel free to PM me.
