Maternal and fetal health effects of working during pregnancy
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Maternal and fetal health effects of working during pregnancy Dhaval M. Dave1 Muzhe Yang ●
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Received: 22 April 2020 / Accepted: 3 October 2020 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract We provide some of the first empirical evidence of maternal and fetal health effects of working during pregnancy by using a unique dataset from the New Jersey Department of Health that includes information not only on pregnancy and birth outcomes but also on maternal employment. We match the mother’s occupation with the Metabolic Equivalent of Task, provided by the Census Occupational Classification System and used as a measure for the strenuousness of the work activities performed. Focusing on an empirical setting where laws regarding reasonable accommodations for pregnant women are already in place, we still find consistent and robust evidence that working in a relatively more strenuous job during pregnancy raises the likelihood of an adverse birth outcome, specifically fetal macrosomia, by about 1.5 percentage points. While there are no statistically or economically significant effects on other birth outcomes, our finding of a significant increase in fetal macrosomia nevertheless highlights a possible deficiency of existing accommodation laws intended to protect pregnant workers. In addition, our study indicates an under-studied link between gestational diabetes (a known risk factor for fetal macrosomia) and intensive physical activities at work during pregnancy, potentially mediated by disrupted sleep due to greater work intensity. Keywords Physical activity Job strenuousness Pregnancy and birth outcomes Fetal macrosomia Gestational diabetes ●
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JEL codes I12 J13 ●
* Muzhe Yang [email protected] 1
Department of Economics, Bentley University, National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), and Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Waltham, MA, USA
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Department of Economics, Lehigh University, 621 Taylor Street, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
D. M. Dave, M. Yang
1 Introduction Working during pregnancy has become increasingly common in the United States over the past four decades, with the share of women working at all while pregnant growing from 44% in 1967 to 68% in 2018.1 While this increase coincided with the secular rise in women’s overall workforce participation, other factors have also played a role in enabling more women to stay in the labor force during (and after) pregnancy (Laughlin 2011). Norms with respect to how families approach work and child rearing have shifted such that women are no longer expected to drop out of the labor force upon becoming pregnant. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act in 1978 prohibited discriminatory practices in hiring, firing, promotion or wages on the basis of pregnancy or childbirth. The 1980s witnessed the emergence of flexible work schedules and employer-based child care benefits, making it easier for women to continue working upon becoming pregnant and after giving birth. The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 mandated up to 12 weeks o
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