Pregnancy: occupational aspects of management: concise guidance

Keith T Palmer, Matteo Bonzini, Jens Peter Ellekilde Bonde, Multidisciplinary Guideline Development Group

25 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Most pregnant women are exposed to some physical activity at work. This Concise Guidance is aimed at doctors advising healthy women with uncomplicated singleton pregnancies about the risks arising from five common workplace exposures (prolonged working hours, shift work, lifting, standing and heavy physical workload). The adverse outcomes considered are: miscarriage, preterm delivery, small for gestational age, low birth weight, pre-eclampsia and gestational hypertension. Systematic review of the literature indicates that these exposures are unlikely to carry much of an increased risk for any of the outcomes, since small apparent effects might be explicable in terms of chance, bias, or confounding, while larger and better studies yield lower estimated risks compared with smaller and weaker studies. In general, patients can be reassured that such work is associated with little, if any, adverse effect on pregnancy. Moreover, moderate physical exercise is thought to be healthy in pregnancy and most pregnant women undertake some physical work at home. The guidelines provide risk estimates and advice on counselling.

Original languageEnglish
JournalClinical Medicine
Volume13
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)75-9
Number of pages5
ISSN1470-2118
Publication statusPublished - 1 Feb 2013

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