Perceptions of Job Hazards and Requests for Accommodation Among Pregnant Women in a Large Urban Hospital System

Abstract

Background: Many pregnant women remain uninformed about job accommodation options or have not been empowered to ask their employers.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of a sample base of pregnant women from late first through third trimester was conducted. Associations between job perception variables, work characteristics, race/ethnicity, and income were assessed using binary logistic regression.

Results: Workers in service/support occupations were twice as likely as those in management to perceive need for job duty change and to request job accommodation. Perception of needed job change was higher when jobs had high physical demands and low substantive complexity.

Conclusions: We found positive relationships between highly physical work, perception of harm, and need for job change in pregnancy. Further research could explore worker/employer characteristics explaining why these perceptions did not translate into requesting and receiving job accommodation during pregnancy.