Female health workers: an obstetric risk group.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was to gather information about the pregnancies of female health workers and to compare them with those of another group of working women with different working conditions, namely bank workers,


METHODS
Using a cross-sectional comparative design, physicians (184), nurses (197) and bank-workers (192) were interviewed about their previous pregnancies and working conditions during those pregnancies.


RESULTS
The majority of physicians (70.6%) and nurses (81.2%) had night work during their pregnancies and two-thirds of them continued this work until the last month of pregnancy, even though they have a legal right not to work during the night after the 7th month of pregnancy. Health workers had shorter maternity leaves than bank workers (P < 0.001) and complained more about the negative attitudes of managers and colleagues during their pregnancy (P < 0.001). Health workers had more preterm deliveries (P < 0.05) compared with bank workers, and nurses had more low birth weight babies compared with bank workers (P < 0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
There is a need for a change in the climate in hospitals in terms of the working conditions of pregnant health staff and the attitudes towards them.
Department of Family Health, University of Istanbul, Turkey.
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Ortaylì
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Ozuğurlu
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Gökçay
D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007230:Infant, Low Birth Weight; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D009726:Nurses; D007752:Obstetric Labor, Premature / Q000453:epidemiology; D009790:Occupations; D010822:Physicians, Women; D011247:Pregnancy; D011256:Pregnancy Outcome / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018566:Pregnancy, High-Risk; D014421:Turkey / Q000453:epidemiology; D014931:Women, Working; D014940:Work Schedule Tolerance; D016526:Workload