Work and Pregnancy

Posted by Analyse at 11:09 AM

Friday, September 02, 2005

When I was in college, everybody in my entourage told me that I was leading my life into a man's world. More so when I continued with chemistry, my mom particularly, already predicted that I'll have a lung cancer or other complications and will die at an early age. No, she's no Nostradamus, just a trying-hard-mom trying to dissuade her daughter from an unknown risk. I even remember contradicting my mom 'you wanted an engineer in the family, right?'...just to learn that this dream wasn't destined for me. Oh well...those arguments had no impact on me anyway, I nevertheless traced my path into this man's world full of complications!

My job consists mainly of projects at a global scale which requires a lot of time. A product which you buy in a supermarket doesn't arrive there alone in a second, obvious right? It normally passes through a long strategic pathway: marketing (to study market demand) - research - development - industrialisation - production - marketing (distribution). My world evolves around that blue-colored jobs.

Funny how it looks easy writing it that way, just a portion of a somewhat simple task. In fact, I do a part of development in collaboration with our R&D team which could extend from few months to infinity. After the development, we head straight on the industrialisation phase where we check its feasibility. A tough job. Profitability, industrial viability, and market acceptability are being studied here. My technical and economic prowess are being squeezed hard at this point. And would you believe that there are products which don't even see their light because of such and such? Whew! If everything is ok tho, the project will be deployed on site for mass production where my role is to implement the new process which includes defining the machine, the working parameters, the capacity, etc etc down to training the people so they could work on their own.

Interesting job, right? So what's the incidence on me being pregnant?

Chemicals - I wouldn't risk my baby's health, no matter what the cost. Bad thing is that, I work with chemicals. Not directly of course, but small doses at longer periods of exposure is just as dangerous. So I try to work 'from a distance', I prepare all the planning and let other people work for me (which is the case even at normal periods anyway), but I love analysing problems and final results myself - close to my subject! Anyway, I obliged myself to be a bit distant for awhile.. for the sake of my bébé.

Travels - it is clearly written in my job contract that 30% of my time will be spent on travels. That's part of my job. Techno transfers, especially when it involves chemicals, requires a minimum of hands-on implementation and training. If I were busy accumulating mileage last year, for a change, I never took the plane since the beginning of this year. Beginning to miss it!

By Project Basis - that would mean I should involve myself from Day 1 to D Day. So in consequence, no new projects for 2005, otherwise, I won't be able to follow the evolution of my new project. Unfortunately, all of my current projects are starting to reactivate now, few weeks before my maternity leave! I'm currently busy as a bee! Whew!

All that rolled into one reads: DANGEROUS FOR PREGNANT WOMEN!

14 comments:

duke said...

ahh your job isn't really friendly for pregnant women like you! and it's not that easy!
wish you the best sis! basta bébé's health is first priority!

tintin said...

Take care of the bébé and yourself. Keep up with your dilligence in staying away from those chemicals while preggie, and pretty soon you'll be away from. Out of sight out of mind, right?

Analyse said...

Duke, bébé's health is indeed my priority, don't want to regret anything later and blame myself coz i didn't take necessary precautions..

TinTin, actually, i was always hiding in my office since the start of my pregnancy. there was even a time when i needed to formulate a solution and i asked my boss to prepare it for me, the time when i haven't announced my pregnancy yet...di naman sya nagtaka, nor nag isip na angtamad ko naman hehehe...

Anonymous said...

analyse, you should meet julien. masaya siya pag chemicals ang pinag-uusapan! hehe. take care of yourself though and stay away from the bad chemicals!
-kala

Anonymous said...

ilang weeks ang mandated ML sa france?

Analyse said...

Nao, yun na nga lang hinihintay ko e..kaya lang i still have 5 wks to endure before that ML..

Kala, thanks! I leave all those bad chemicals to my colleagues now ;)

Techguy, it's 6 weeks before and 10 weeks after the delivery for the first child...and more if you have twins, and more if you have kids before...everybody says that they add up 2 weeks pathological leave before the ML, so that would mean 8 wks before...so that would mean i'll stop end of sept instead of mid oct..we'll see, i don't have the prescription yet ;)

Bokbok said...

I think you should stop working for a while, Ana. Being exposed to chemicals n'est pas bien while pregnant, or while breastfeeding (well, just in case you wanna do it after giving birth...).

How does frenchguy feel about this? am sure he already asked you to stop, eh?

After all, you got nothing to lose...

Take care,
boks

RAV Jr said...

i agree with them, baby health is the priority ;)

wag ka po masyado magpapagod...

Anonymous said...

I'm sure you know what's best for you and your precious little one. :) Take care and God bless!

Analyse said...

kadyo, thank you po!

Boks, I'm barely a month till my maternity leave! Impatiently waiting for it na.

I don't have direct contact with chemicals now, I just prepare the planning and let our operators work for me. I just hate it working far from my subject..but what can I do. Anyways, I read all the FDS (fiche de sécurité) of all the products we're using right now to be sure, frenchguy me laisse le soins du bébé on this aspect ;).

The operators understand naman, me isa lang na makulit, tawag ng tawag sa office ko..

Dops, thanks po for the concern!

Linnor, thanks! tho security is tough here, i still take care not to inhale chemical vapors..bébé's health is #1!

Francesca said...

di bale, pag labas ni bebe, hataw uli (sa work)
your work is interesting Ana. Siguro pati wine, na check mo na. Especially wine! Sarap non!

Analyse said...

di lang check, tikim pa hehe..

Ladynred said...

When I was preggy I stop working 1 month before my due date. I applied for sick leave para may bayad. May cramps kc ako sa mga kamay at hindi ko na kaya. At may chemicals din sa trabaho ko. I'm sure you'll do the right thing. Take it easy and take care.

Analyse said...

Agring, dito naman, paid maternity leave is 6 weeks before the delivery. pero they automatically give 2 weeks more for pathological leave daw, so that will give me 2 months of paid maternity leave, ok di ba.