Occupational, social and medical characteristics of early prenatal leave in France.
In France, most women of childbearing age work. The prenatal leave law in France protects women during pregnancy and their employment. We aimed to describe how long before delivery women stopped working and analyse the association between occupational, social and medical factors and early prenatal leave (before 24 weeks' gestation).



The sample was extracted from the 2010 French National Perinatal Survey. Women were interviewed in French maternity units during a 1-week period. We focused on all women with a singleton live birth who were working during pregnancy (n = 10 149). Women were interviewed between delivery and discharge to collect information on employment, date of leave, sociodemographic and medical characteristics.



Among women who worked during pregnancy, 27.5% reported early occupational leave (before 24 weeks' gestation). Early occupational leave was more frequent among women with unstable jobs (fixed-term vs. non-fixed-term contract: adjusted odds ratio aOR = 1.60 [95% confidence interval 1.40-1.84]) and with less-qualified occupational categories (manual workers vs. managers and upper-intellectual positions: aOR = 2.96 [2.30-3.82]), even after adjusting for sociodemographic and other employment characteristics. Women with a pathological or at risk pregnancy left work earlier than other women. After stratification on type of pregnancy there was still a higher rate of early leave for women with less qualified occupational group.



In France, social vulnerability of pregnant women, linked to low sociodemographic situation or low occupational categories, is associated with early leave during pregnancy, even after stratification on type of pregnancy.
INSERM UMR 1153, Obstetrical, Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (EPOPé), Center for Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité, DHU Risks in Pregnancy, Paris Descartes University, 75014 Paris, France solene.vigoureux@inserm.fr.
Solène
S
Vigoureux
INSERM UMR 1153, Obstetrical, Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (EPOPé), Center for Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité, DHU Risks in Pregnancy, Paris Descartes University, 75014 Paris, France.
Béatrice
B
Blondel
INSERM UMR 1018, CESP Centre for Research in Epidemiology and Population Health, Gender, Sexuality and Health Team, Université Paris-Saclay, Univ. Paris-Sud, UVSQ, Kremlin-Bicêtre F-94276, France.|Institut National d'Etudes Démographiques (INED), F-75020 Paris, France.
Virginie
V
Ringa
INSERM UMR 1153, Obstetrical, Perinatal and Pediatric Epidemiology Research Team (EPOPé), Center for Epidemiology and Statistics Sorbonne Paris Cité, DHU Risks in Pregnancy, Paris Descartes University, 75014 Paris, France.
Marie-Josèphe
MJ
Saurel-Cubizolles
D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D005602:France; D006304:Health Status; D006801:Humans; D009790:Occupations / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016524:Parental Leave / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011247:Pregnancy; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D013997:Time Factors; D014931:Women, Working / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*