About Pregnancy & Childbirth: Shift Workers May Have More Pregnancy Complications

About Pregnancy & Childbirth Pregnancy & Childbirth

Shift Workers May Have More Pregnancy Complications Jul 18th 2013, 10:09 It has long been thought that women who worked shift work or flexible shifts, shifts that move around, had changes in their menstrual cycles and fertility. A large retrospective look at the reproductive history of over 100,000 women was presented at the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference this month. While these findings still need to be looked at in other studies because of a multitude of factors, it gives us some guidance as to where to start looking. Some of the findings included that women who worked irregular hours had a 33% greater chance of having menstrual disruption. This would be shorter or longer periods, anovulatory cycles, etc. This would cause issues with conceiving when they were trying to get pregnant. Their findings showed an 80% higher chance of subfertility, meaning less than ideal fertility levels. For women who worked night shift, they didn't appear to have the same irregularities, but they did have a higher rate of miscarriage than their day working counter parts. While this study doesn't prove that working at night causes miscarriages, it does show something to be studied. So what do you do if you work rotating shifts or work at night? I'd recommend that you start by charting your menstrual cycles.  This will give you an idea of if you're having irregularities. I would recommend this even if you are not yet trying to become pregnant. It can only provide you with valuable information.  If you're working at night, it's harder to say what a good recommendation would be. Things we don't know include: Does changing to day shift help? Or would the change in work patterns be even more stressful to your body and thereby potentially more harmful to your baby? Talking to your practitioner and seeing if new studies are out being a great place to start. What's your work cycle like? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Join the conversation! NEWSLETTER | PINTEREST | TWITTER FACEBOOK | GOOGLE+ | CONNECT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Photo © ShutterStock Shift Workers May Have More Pregnancy Complications originally appeared on About.com Pregnancy & Childbirth on Thursday, July 18th, 2013 at 10:09:54. Permalink | Comment | Email this

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