Women at Work in Pregnancy

Abstract

In all countries of the Western World two changes in work patterns can be seen: more women are working in pregnancy than 30 years ago and the pregnant workers are staying in employment later into pregnancy than previously. The position in the UK is exemplified in table 1.1. In 1946 Douglas¹ surveyed all the deliveries of one week in England and Wales in the National Birthday Trust study Maternity in Great Britain. He reported that 28 per cent of women worked in pregnancy and 10 per cent of these went on to work into the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Daniels², in a randomised study of 2700 pregnant women during 1979, found that the proportion at work had increased to 48 per cent, of whom three-quarters were working into the last trimester. This represents almost a doubling of those working and a much greater proportion of pregnant workers continuing later in gestation.