What About The Pregnant Woman At Work?

Pregnant working women are raising concerns about ergonomic risk factors that may affect them as well as their baby. An ergonomic risk factor is any imbalance between the worker and the work environment which results in extra demands on the worker. The main ergonomic risk factors include: awkward postures, high force, no rest and repetitive work. Every person responds to ergonomic risk factors in different ways; for example, one worker may have symptoms of a repetitive strain injury while another worker doing the same work may not have symptoms. To reduce the risk of injury, ergonomic risk factors should be identified and reduced as much as possible.

   Today, many women work during pregnancy and continue to do so until the birth of their child. However, working in unfavourable conditions may have adverse effects on the woman as well as her baby. The most common pregnancy outcomes studied in relation to ergonomics are gestational age, birthweight and spontaneous abortion. Maternal health is also important and is discussed in this paper.