What to expect when you're expecting (76 page)

Take an occasional chill pill. Too much stress isn’t good for you or your baby. So try to use breaks to relax as fully as you can: Bring an iPod so you can listen to music; close your eyes and meditate or indulge in some daydreaming; do some soothing stretches; take a five-minute stroll around the building.

Listen to your body. Slow down your pace if you’re feeling tired; go home early if you’re exhausted (and can leave).

Most jobs are completely compatible with the job of feeding and caring for an unborn baby, which is very good news to the millions of expectant mothers who must manage to work full time at both occupations. Still, some jobs are obviously safer and better suited to pregnant women than others. Most on-the-job problems can be avoided with the right precautions or a modification of duties (check with your practitioner for other workplace recommendations in your case):

Office work.
Anyone with a desk job knows the pain of stiff necks, aching backs, and headaches, all of which can make a pregnant woman feel more uncomfortable than she already is. No harm done to baby—but a lot of wear and tear on your achy expectant body. If you spend a lot of time sitting, be sure to stand up, stretch, and walk away from your desk frequently. Stretch your arms,
neck, and shoulders while sitting in your chair, put your feet up to reduce swelling (your boss may not appreciate your tootsies on the desk, so rest your feet on a low stool or box instead), and support your back with a cushion.

Quiet, Please

By about 24 weeks, your baby’s outer, middle, and inner ear are well developed. By 27 to 30 weeks, your baby’s ear is mature enough to start to respond to the sounds that filter through to him or her. The sounds, of course, are muffled—and not just by the physical barrier of amniotic fluid and your own body. In his or her fluid-filled home, a baby’s eardrum and middle ear can’t do their normal job of amplifying sounds. So even sounds that are quite loud to you won’t be for the baby.

Still, since noise is one of the most prevalent of all occupational hazards and has long been known to cause hearing loss in those (adults) exposed to it regularly, you might want to play it safe when it comes to excessive noise during pregnancy. That’s because studies suggest that
prolonged
and
repeated
exposure to very loud noise raises the odds of a baby suffering some hearing loss, especially at lower frequencies. Such prolonged noise exposure—say, an eight-hour-a-day shift in an industrial workplace, where the sound level is more than 9. or 100 decibels (about the same as standing next to a loud lawn mower or a chain saw)—can also increase the risk of premature delivery and low-birthweight babies. Extremely intense sound, 150 or 155 decibels (ever stand right next to a screaming jet engine?), can cause similar problems for the baby. Generally, it’s safest to avoid more than eight hours of continuous exposure to noises louder than 85 or 90 decibels (such as a lawn mower or truck traffic) and more than two hours a day of exposure to noise louder than 100 decibels (such as that from a chain saw, pneumatic drill, or snowmobile).

More research needs to be done, but in the meantime, expectant mothers who work in an extremely noisy environment—such as a club where loud music is played, in a subway, or in a factory where protective hearing devices are required (you can’t put these devices on your fetus)—or who are exposed to heavy vibrations on the job should play it safe and seek a temporary transfer or a new job. And try to avoid prolonged exposure to very loud noises in your everyday life: Listen to the concert from the middle of the amphitheater, or better yet, head back to the lawn seats; turn down the volume in your car; and wear headphones instead of blasting the music while you’re vacuuming.

What about computer safety? Luckily, computer monitors are not a hazard to pregnant women, and neither are laptops. More worrisome is the multitude of physical discomforts, including wrist and arm strain, dizziness, and headaches, that can result from too much time spent in front of the computer. For fewer aches and pains, use a height-adjustable chair with a backrest that supports your lower back. Adjust the monitor to a comfortable height; the top should be level with your eyes and about an arm’s length away from you. Use an ergonomic keyboard, designed to reduce the risk of carpal tunnel syndrome (see box,
page 191
), if possible, and/or a wrist rest. When you put your hands on the keyboard, they should be lower than your elbows and your forearms should be parallel to the floor.

Getting All the Facts

By law, you have the right to know what chemicals you are exposed to on the job; your employer is obliged to tell you. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is the regulatory body that monitors those laws. Contact them for more information on your rights regarding workplace safety: (800) 321-OSHA—(800) 321-6742;
osha.gov
. Further information on workplace hazards can also be obtained by contacting the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Clearinghouse for Occupational Safety and Health Information, (800) CDC-INFO—(800) 232-4636;
cdc.gov/niosh/topics/repro
.

If your job does expose you to hazards, either ask to be transferred temporarily to a safer post or, finances and company policy permitting, begin your maternity leave early.

Health care work.
Staying healthy is every health care professional’s top on-the-job priority, but it ranks even higher when you’re staying healthy for two. Among the potential risks you’ll need to protect yourself and your baby from are exposure to chemicals (such as ethylene oxide and formaldehyde) used for sterilization of equipment; to some anticancer drugs; to infections, such as hepatitis B and AIDS; and to ionizing radiation (such as that used in diagnosis or treatment of disease). Most technicians working with low-dose diagnostic X-rays are not exposed to dangerous levels of radiation. It is recommended, however, that women of childbearing age working with higher-dose radiation wear a special device that keeps track of daily exposure, to ensure that cumulative annual exposure does not exceed safe levels.

Depending on the particular risk you are exposed to, you might want to either take safety precautions as recommended by NIOSH (see box) or switch to safer work for now.

Manufacturing work.
If you have a factory or manufacturing job that has you operating heavy or dangerous machinery, talk to your boss about a change of duties while you’re pregnant. You can also contact the machinery’s manufacturer (ask for the corporate medical director. for more information about the product’s safety. How safe conditions are in a factory depends on what’s being
made in it and, to a certain extent, on how responsible and responsive the people who run it are. OSHA lists a number of substances that a pregnant woman should avoid on the job. Where proper safety protocols are implemented, exposure to such toxins can be avoided. Your union or other labor organization may be able to help you determine if you are properly protected. You can also get useful information from NIOSH or OSHA (see box, facing page).

Physically strenuous work.
Work that involves heavy lifting, physical exertion, long hours, rotating shifts, or continuous standing may somewhat increase a woman’s risk for preterm delivery. If you have such a job, you should request a transfer, by 20 to 28 weeks, to a less strenuous position until after delivery and postpartum recovery. (See
page 196
for recommendations on how long it is safe for you to stay at various strenuous jobs during your pregnancy.)

Emotionally stressful work.
The extreme stress in some workplaces seems to take its toll on workers in general and on pregnant women in particular. So it makes sense to cut down on the stress in your life as much as possible, especially now. One obvious way to do that is to switch to a job that is less stressful or take early maternity leave. But these approaches aren’t feasible for everyone; if the job is critical financially or professionally, you may find yourself even more stressed if you leave it.

You might, instead, consider ways of reducing stress, including meditation and deep breathing, regular exercise (to release those feel-good endorphins), and having more fun (seeing a movie instead of working until 10
P.M
.). Talking to your employer, explaining that overtime, overwork, and general stress could affect your pregnancy, may help, too. Explain that being allowed to set your own pace at work may make your pregnancy more comfortable (this kind of stress seems to increase the risk of backaches and other painful pregnancy side effects) and help you do a better job. If you’re self-employed, cutting back may be even tougher (you’re probably your own most demanding boss), but it’s something you’d be wise to consider.

Other work.
Teachers and social workers who deal with young children may come into contact with infections that can potentially affect pregnancy, such as chicken pox, fifth disease, and CMV. Animal handlers, meat cutters, and meat inspectors may be exposed to toxoplasmosis (but some may well have developed immunity already, in which case their babies would not be at risk). If you work where infection is a risk, be sure you’re immunized as needed and take appropriate precautions, such as washing hands frequently and thoroughly, wearing protective gloves, a mask, and so on.

Flight attendants or pilots may be at a slightly higher risk for miscarriage or preterm labor (though studies are inconclusive. due to exposure to radiation from the sun during high-altitude flights, and they might want to consider switching to shorter routes (they’re usually flown at lower altitudes and require less standing time) or to ground work during pregnancy.

Artists, photographers, chemists, cosmeticians, dry cleaners, those in the leather industry, agricultural and horticultural workers, and others may be exposed to a variety of possibly hazardous chemicals in the course of work, so be sure to wear gloves and other protective gear. If you work with any suspect substances, take appropriate precautions, which in some cases may mean avoiding the part of the job that involves the use of chemicals.

Planning to work until that first contraction hits? Many women successfully mix business with baby making right through the ninth month, without compromising the well-being of either occupation. Still, some jobs are better suited to pregnant women during the long haul (so to speak) than other jobs. And chances are, the decision of whether you’ll continue to work until delivery will have at least something to do with the kind of work you’re involved in. If you have a desk job, you can probably plan to go straight from the office to the birthing room. A sedentary job that isn’t particularly stressful may actually be less of a strain on both you and baby than staying at home with a vacuum cleaner and mop, trying to tidy up the nest for your new arrival. And some walking—an hour or two daily, on the job or off—is not only harmless but beneficial (assuming you aren’t carrying heavy loads as you go).

Jobs that are strenuous, very stressful, and/or involve a great deal of standing, however, may be another, somewhat controversial, matter. One study found that women who were on their feet 65 hours a week didn’t seem to have any more pregnancy complications than women who worked many fewer and usually less stressful hours. Other studies, however, suggest that steady strenuous or stressful activity or long hours of standing after the 28th week—particularly if the expectant mother also has other children to care for at home—may increase the risk of certain complications, including premature labor, high blood pressure, and a low-birthweight baby.

Should women who stand on the job—salespeople, chefs and other restaurant workers, police officers, doctors, nurses, and so on—work past the 28th week? Most practitioners give the green light to work longer if a woman feels fine and her pregnancy is progressing normally. Standing on the job all the way to term, however, may not be a good idea, less because of the theoretical risk to the pregnancy than the real risk that such pregnancy discomforts as backache, varicose veins, and hemorrhoids will be aggravated.