Pregnancy can be an exciting time in a person's life but it can also cause anxiety.
Common concerns that my patients have are whether their job could cause them to have a miscarriage.
Turns out that some jobs can make miscarriage more likely. Stay tuned and I will explain
Regardless of what your job is, if you have to work at night,
the so-called night shift. You may be at greater risk for miscarriage.
A 2019 study from Denmark showed this. In this study they looked at over 22 thousand pregnant
women, determined their work schedules and whether they had a miscarriage. Pregnant people
who had two or more night shifts the previous week had a 32% increased risk of miscarriage
compared with pregnant people who did not work night shifts. In fact, the more night
shifts a person worked during pregnancy, the higher the risk for having miscarriage.
Jobs that require you to be on your feet for prolonged periods of time
like waitresses or nurses, might increase the risk for some pregnancy complications like
preterm delivery but I could find no evidence that it increases the risk for miscarriage.
Waitresses, however, may be at risk from something else. Cigarette smoke. Many restaurants no longer
allow smoking but a waitress that works in a bar or a club may inhale a considerable amount of
second smoke. An analysis of a number of studies of secondhand smoke exposure during pregnancy
found that on average, the risk for miscarriage was increased by about 11%.
Cigarettes aren't the only source for smoke. This study of
firefighters found that compared to nurses, they had a higher risk for miscarriage
Flying in an airplane increases the amount of radiation you are exposed to. The more hours you
are in the air, the greater your exposure. This could affect pregnant airline pilots and flight
attendants. In addition, flying through different time zones can disrupt sleep patterns and flight
attendants also have to do a lot of physically demanding stuff. This study found that there was
a modest increase in the risk of miscarriage due to radiation exposure but a much more
important risk when flight attendants experience sleep disruption or excessive physical demands.
A few studies have looked at cosmetologists, specifically hairdressers and nails technicians.
Hair dyes,depending on the type, can contain thousands of different chemicals. A few studies
have found an increased risk for miscarriage in hairdressers. One study found that a
relationship between the number of chemical treatments given and the rate of miscarriage.
A study from this year found that female surgeons reported double the amount of miscarriages of
other similarly aged women. Surgeons have a number of miscarriage risk factors like
erratic sleep schedules, long hours and exposure to anesthesia gases
that could explain their seemingly higher risk.
What about having a stressful job? These kinds of studies are very difficult to do because it
is very hard to measure stress. Studies looking at night shift work or hours of sleep are very
objective. Stress is very subjective. There is no universally accepted measure of stress.
That being said, some studies have found a mild increase in miscarriage risk based on job stress.
Our InfertilityTV bottom line is this.
Some occupations do have a higher risk for miscarriage than others based. The reasons
vary from one job to the next. If you can avoid these jobs, there may be a benefit