Posted By Karen Todd Difficult one. Most of the recent assessments I've done for new & expectant mothers have been for office workers and I told them not to lift anything heavier than a ream of paper, and a lady who'd suffered a miscarriage told me she wouldn't even be lifting a ream of paper. In a previous job where ladies were machine operators - some ran the machines, others packed the stuff coming off into boxes and put the boxes onto a pallet, we had a pregnant lady. She had suffered a number of miscarriages and had been trying for a baby for a very long time and was adamant she was taking no chances. We (me, her, OH nurse, dept supervisor, HR manager & production manager) all agreed the tasks she could do, which left very little indeed. Also she wanted her pregnancy to be kept under wraps, but I'm sure it didn't take the rest of the girls very long to twig what was going on when she was put onto restricted duties. The production manager was not particularly impressed, but I reminded him that the alternative was to suspend her on full pay, and asked him if he would rather have her in the house doing nothing on full pay, or in work doing a little bit and still contributing to production on full pay. I think the question to ask is why she wants to still do these tasks. An engineering company I know of when their shop floor ladies become pregnant immediately remove them from manual work and get them to become "engineering assistants" and do things like BOM checks. Karen

Posted By nspencer From an Occupational health perspective I would restrict the load she is moving/lifting/working hours etc. Hormones and other non specific problems can make a pregnant woman more prone to musculoskeletal injuries and/or backache etc. Also research has shown that long hours, stress, tiredness or very physical work can increase the risk of a premature birth. I would advise adjustments to be made to her work and sit down and discuss why. There may be other motives why she wants to carry on e.g. job threat, financial. Nicola