On Becoming a Domestic and Laboratory Goddess

I love when you little muffins email and tell me you're all round and with child. Here's an email from a regular commenter whose name I will not reveal...

Fabulous Isis,

You're amazing, and I love the advice you give.

I will start my question with my great news: I am expecting my first baby! I'm only 7 weeks along and am going to my first doctor's appt on Dec 1. I am so super excited (despite the random nausea and my chest hurting more than I ever imagined was possible). I am leaving my post doc in a month and will being teaching full time at a small college in the city I live in starting in January. Since I am leaving, I hadn't planned on telling anyone at my postdoc (I don't feel close with any of them and it is not something I really want to share with them). Yesterday, another postdoc informed me not to open a shipment he received because it contains Mersa. Since he is going to be doing experiments on Mersa, I immediately told him that I'm pregnant. He assured me that he will only do the experiments on the weekend when I am not in the lab and is going to restrict all his experiments to one room (and in the hood). Regardless, I am FREAKING OUT. I feel like I should just leave at Thanksgiving and not come back. If I didn't need the money, I totally would. But I also think that if I asked, my parents would totally help us out for the month. So, I guess my question is, what in the world should I do!? If I wasn't pregnant, I would have a problem with these Mersa experiments, but, being pregnant, I am extremely uncomfortable. I think that I am feeling even more uncomfortable because the person who will be doing the experiments is not the most cautious or clean person. He says he will disinfect everything and yet, I am not sure I believe him (or at least trust him to be careful enough to actually kill everything. And when I tell him how concerned I am, his response is, "Well, I'm the one actually working with it!"

I don't think I've ever been so glad to leave a job.

Maybe, I'm just wondering what you think you might do in this situation?

Thank you Isis! You're amazing!

[Redacted](but please don't post my name if you put my question on your blog, I'm not ready for the entire world to know about Baby yet)

So, this is a huge and important issue for women graduate students and postdocs. Being pregnant and a trainee is stressful enough. I remember when I became pregnant with Little Isis. Telling my advsor was more stressful than telling my father. Even though I knew in my heart that he would react positively, there was still something frightening about my vulnerable-feeling trainee status and disclosing my pregnancy. I think this is a topic we've discussed a few times on the blog, so I wont belabor the point.

It sounds as though the impetus to not tell your lab group is just that you don't want them all up in your Kool-Aid. That, at least, makes my answer easier because we can all totes ignore that last paragraph I wrote.

Figure 1: This is exactly how I felt 9 months pregnant.

You have a right to work in your lab safely, without fear of the effects the lab's experiments will have on your developing baby. It may be possible to abate the hazard (ie, through proper infection control procedures). If it is not, then you have the reasonable expectation to be moved to an environment where you and your baby are not at risk. According to the amendment to the Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964:

If an employee is temporarily unable to perform her job because of her pregnancy, the employer must treat her the same as any other temporarily disabled employee. For example, if the employer allows temporarily disabled employees to modify tasks, perform alternative assignments, or take disability leave or leave without pay, the employer also must allow an employee who is temporarily disabled because of pregnancy to do the same.

Your university may specifically have policies related to your pregnancy. For example, a search of Yale University's website turned up this policy related to the use of radioactive materials by pregnant women:

The developing fetus may be more sensitive to radiation than adults. Therefore, the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP) has recommended that fetal radiation dose as a result of occupational exposure of the mother should not exceed 0.5 rem during the entire gestation period. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission concurs with this recommendation and therefore enacted the separate exposure limit for the embryo/fetus. According to NRC regulations, "The limit for the embryo/fetus of a declared pregnant woman is 0.5 rem over the entire gestation period." ¹ The NRC defines a declared pregnant woman as "a woman who has voluntarily informed her employer in writing of her pregnancy and the estimated date of conception." ² To help ensure the safety of the pregnant woman and her fetus, Radiation Safety is staffed with professionals who can assist pregnant women in evaluating their work requirements and exposure conditions. All pregnant women working with radioactive materials, or frequenting laboratories where radioactive materials are used, are encouraged to contact Radiation Safety for more information.

When a pregnancy is made known to Radiation Safety, a Health Physicist will review which radiation sources are approved for use in the woman's laboratory. The radiation exposure history of the worker will also be reviewed. If the review determines that iodinations are done in the laboratory or that high activity sealed sources and/or x-ray equipment are in use, the worker will be consulted. Recommendations will then be made on an individual basis.

If you are concerned about the health of your baby in the laboratory, it is reasonable to talk to your PI and ask him/her to help create an environment where you feel safe.  This may mean a consultation with your university's safety department in order to define procedures that add an additional level of safeguard to procedures done in the lab and to help you weigh the risk/benefit of continuing to work in the lab.  When I became pregnant, we were working with some materials that I felt might be unsafe.  A consult with the folks in our Environmental Health and Safety department helped me to alter how I performed the experiments in order to abate some of the hazards and to feel more comfortable with the risks associated with some of the other hazards. 

Before I became pregnant there was a hazard I was especially concerned about.  It wasn't a material, but a person.  There was a guy working in the lab, we'll call him Biohazard Bob, who was particularly careless with where he handled materials.  He had no problem holding a vial of dangerously contaminated material in one hand and walking over to the desks to have a chat with folks.  That kind of stuff makes me crazy.  So, one day my labmates outlined around the floor of his workstation with brightly colored lab tape and told him that he was no longer allowed to move the contents of his station outside of this zone.  Then, they threatened his life if they ever caught him doing it again.  The threat of bodily harm seemed to do the trick, although I can not in good conscience recommend physical violence. But peer pressure can have a profound effect on lab safety.

So, start there, little muffin. Have a chat with the powers that be and let them know your concerns for the final month you'll be there. That's not warm, fuzzy bonding over your pregnancy - that's creating a healthy work environment.  It may be that you can come to a peaceful resolution that helps you feel safe.  Take advantage of the safety resources your university has and don't be shy about standing up for the well-being of your child.  Right now you're really his/her only advocate.

Also, make sure to enjoy sleeping now.  I really miss sleeping.  Oh, how I miss sleeping.  Lord, I miss sleeping.