PHYSICAL WORK LOAD AND THE ONSET OF MATERNITY LEAVE

This study assesses the impact of performing physical job tasks at wor k during pregnancy. A prospective follow-up study was conducted among nurses and office workers. At 15 weeks of gestation, all participants were asked to describe their regular job tasks, the physical activitie s involved and their-exposure to other occupational stressors. The phy sical activities identified were walking, standing, lifting, stooping squatting, and sitting. Job adaptations were frequently realized for n urses. Despite these adaptations, from 23 weeks of gestation, and on, significantly more nurses had stopped working compared to office worke rs. From this point in gestation 44% of the nurses were performing the ir work as usual compared to 75% of the office workers. These results suggest that, if appropriate job adaptations are not possible, the ons et of maternity leave should be regulated according to the level of ph ysical effort required by the work. In addition, withdrawal from work due to the combination of pregnancy and physical workload could be min imized by a change in job tasks from the fifth month of gestation, all owing only office duties from then on.