Objective: To describe the characteristics of employed women with high-risk pregnancies, their pattern of employment prenatally and postpartum, and the relationship of prenatal employment to preterm or full-term birth.
Design: Secondary analysis with a sample of 171 women with high-risk pregnancies.
Setting: Women's homes and a tertiary care hospital.
Participants: Women who were primarily single, African American, and poor; 33% worked or attended school during their pregnancies.
Main outcome measures: Gestational age at birth, employment, and school attendance.
Results: Preterm delivery was not related to when the women stopped working or attending school or were prescribed bed rest. Women employed prenatally were older, had higher incomes, and were more likely to be white or of ethnicity other than African American. Fifty-seven percent of women with a history of prenatal employment and 85% of the women who intended to work after delivery returned to work during the first postpartum year.
Conclusions: Women employed during high-risk pregnancies are similar demographically to women with low-risk pregnancies in other studies. Most of the women stopped working or attending school because of prescribed bed rest. Bed rest, however, was not related to preterm delivery. Most women who planned to return to work did so. Factors other than the women's high-risk pregnancies, such as attitudes toward employment, employability, and family circumstances, most likely influenced their employment status. Current welfare reform initiatives will increase the number of women working while pregnant. This article provides pre-welfare-reform baseline data concerning patterns and effects of employment for women with high-risk pregnancies. These data will enable nurses to examine the effects of welfare reform on employment during pregnancy and preterm birth.