Delivers babies and treats everything from fertility to cancer of the reproductive organs. Five years of residency, surgery, and babies at 3 a.m.
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What you earn and what it costs to get there.
Typical net
$340,000
Part-time or new
$250,000
Busy with heavy call
$500,000
CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) reports average gross payments of about $435,000 a year for obstetrics and gynecology (2023 to 2024), with a median near $420,000. After office overhead and insurance most ob-gyns net roughly $300,000 to $380,000. Deliveries and surgery bill well. It varies by province and by how you bill.
$65,000 to $95,000
Salary across the 5 years of obstetrics and gynecology residency, rising each year
Paid employees with benefits and a union contract. Quebec pays the least, Alberta and Ontario the most.
Tens of thousands a year
Obstetrics is the riskiest specialty to insure
Fees to the CMPA (Canadian Medical Protective Association) for obstetrics are the highest of any specialty because birth injuries lead to the largest lawsuits. Provinces reimburse most of it, so the real hit to income is smaller than it looks.
Tuition, fees, exams and kit. Not rent, food or travel
The low end is a three year undergraduate degree and a three year medical school at the cheaper end of Canadian tuition, plus the MCAT (medical school admission test), the MCCQE (the national medical licensing exam) and the Royal College certification exam. The high end is four years of each at the priciest schools with the full range of application and exam fees. The five residency years are paid work and add no tuition. Most graduates leave medical school owing $80,000 to $150,000, and the interest on that borrowing is not counted in these numbers.
Typical debt at the end of medical school is $80,000 to $150,000. Five paid residency years help you pay it down.
Pension only if salaried
Most ob-gyns are self-employed. Ontario residents are in HOOPP (the Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan) during training.
Union contract during residency
Provincial residents' associations negotiate pay, call limits and leave.
Malpractice coverage
Through the CMPA (Canadian Medical Protective Association). Expensive for obstetrics, mostly reimbursed.
Professional corporation
Most provinces let doctors incorporate, which lowers taxes on money left in the business.
The exact path from high school to qualified.
Same road as every doctor, then 5 years that are half medicine, half surgery.
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Top marks in biology, chemistry, math and English. You need a very high average for a science undergrad.
Bachelor's degree
3 to 4 years
Any major works. Keep a GPA (grade point average) above 3.8, volunteer, do research. Write the MCAT (medical school admission test).
Medical school, the MD (doctor of medicine)
3 to 4 years
Acceptance rates are 5% to 15%. Classes, then clinical rotations. You will deliver your first baby as a student.
Obstetrics and gynecology residency
5 years
Matched through CaRMS (the residency matching service). Labour and delivery, caesarean sections, gynecologic surgery, fertility, cancer and ultrasound.
Certification and licence
End of residency
Pass the Royal College exam to become FRCSC (Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Canada), then register with your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Biology and chemistry
Required for nearly every pre-med path.
Calculus and functions
Physics
Tested on the MCAT (medical school admission test).
English
You will guide people through the best and worst days of their lives.
You need a licence from your provincial College of Physicians and Surgeons to practise, and Royal College certification in obstetrics and gynecology. It is counted as a surgical specialty. Midwives and family doctors also deliver babies in Canada, but only an ob-gyn does caesareans and gynecologic surgery. The Royal College credential is national, so moving provinces is mostly paperwork.
Things you don't need, but that help.
Each is 2 to 3 years after residency.
Maternal-fetal medicine
High-risk pregnancies: twins, diabetes, babies with problems found on ultrasound.
Gynecologic oncology
Cancer of the ovaries, uterus and cervix. Big surgery, chemotherapy, hard conversations.
Reproductive endocrinology and infertility
IVF (in vitro fertilization) clinics. Often private, regular hours, well paid.
Urogynecology
Pelvic floor and bladder problems after childbirth and with age.
Research experience
Helps at some schools.
Doula or birth volunteering
Shows you have seen a real birth and still want this.
French
Opens Ottawa, New Brunswick and Quebec programs.
Fine motor skills
Sewing, instruments, video games. Surgery rewards steady hands.
Some ob-gyns stop delivering babies after 10 or 15 years and keep only the office and surgery side. No more 3 a.m. births, lower insurance fees, predictable hours. It is a common way to make the career last.
Day to day, pros and cons, where you'd work.
Office days: 20 to 30 patients for prenatal visits, pap tests, heavy periods, menopause, fertility questions. Surgery days: hysterectomies and laparoscopies from 8 a.m. On call: you live on the labour floor for 24 hours, managing several labours at once, and when a baby's heart rate drops you have minutes to decide on a caesarean. Then you sleep, if you can.
The good
The hard parts
Things people don't tell you.
Roughly 350,000 babies are born in Canada every year, almost all in hospitals. Ob-gyns attend the majority, with family doctors and midwives covering the rest.
Roughly 3 in 10 Canadian births are by caesarean section, up from about 1 in 5 in the 1990s. Every one of them is performed by an ob-gyn or a specially trained rural doctor.
Obstetrics was once almost entirely male. CIHI (Canadian Institute for Health Information) counted about 2,600 ob-gyns in Canada in 2024, and 2 in 3 were women, one of the biggest shifts in any medical specialty.
Last checked September 2026. Pay figures are typical full-time annual amounts in Canadian dollars, based on Government of Canada Job Bank wage data and published salary grids. They vary by province, employer and experience. Tuition is for domestic students.