Many women, if they are in good health, work until the day of delivery, which could be beneficial in many ways, both physical and emotional, depending on the type of work, of course. But a British study by the University of Essex notes that Women who continue their employment at the end of pregnancy may have lower birth weight babies. than others who stopped working before.
Specifically, the mothers who worked after the eight months of pregnancy were studied and it was found that they give birth to babies with less weight than if they had taken permission before. The difference is about 250 grams.
This is one of those studies that has caught the attention of the media, but in this case I think it has been for the comparison that has been made with the fact that the woman smokes during pregnancy.
Many headlines talk about the fact that work during the last month is as harmful as tobacco during pregnancy. But remember that smoking during pregnancy not only results in the lower weight of the baby at birth, but there are also other associated risks (psychological, arterial, infection, brain, eye, behavioral ...).
For all this, in my opinion, you can't compare working while smoking during pregnancy, however much they coincide at the point of the baby's low weight.
The study prepared by economists, not doctors
The study, which has been conducted by economists, has been published in the latest issue of the Journal of Labor Economics, of the University of Chicago.
One of the study's authors, Professor Marco Francesconi, has said that the government should consider encouraging employers to offer more flexible maternity leave for women who need a rest before and not after the baby is born.
To this, I add without hesitation that Maternity leave after birth should not be played let alone think of reducing them, when we always claim otherwise, to expand.
If we focus on the data of the study that has transcended, it is made from three investigations of the United States and the United Kingdom, and warns about the risks that slow development can bring to the health of newborn babies, even during Your childhood and adolescence.
The study has been conducted among more than 1300 children whose mothers were part of the British Household Panel Survey. The follow-up was done between 1991 and 2005. The data of 17,483 women who gave birth between 2000 and 2001 in the Millennium Cohort Study, and those of 12,166 who shone in the United States National Survey of Family Growth were also examined.
The publication indicates that the problems associated with the continuation of work during the eight months or more of gestation, such as high mortality, are enhanced among older mothers. On the contrary, in women under 24 years of age the work did not affect the weight of the baby at birth.
Stopping from working before in pregnancy is particularly beneficial for women with lower levels of education according to the study, suggesting that the effect of working during pregnancy was possibly more marked for women doing physically demanding work.
In any case, if it is so harmful to work during pregnancy, that "rest" should be mandatory in recent months for women who need it, without reducing the permit time after birth. The prevention of occupational hazards during pregnancy is essential. There will be other women with jobs that do not put the baby at risk and for whom feeling active during the last phase of pregnancy is very beneficial.
Anyway, a study that medically I do not think is going too well directed, since in its very introduction it indicates that, like smoking, not stop working during pregnancy can bring health problems to the baby. When we also read that stopping work three months before delivery is especially beneficial for British babies, we have more doubts about it ...
