Pregnant Women Working Longer Into Pregnancy, Returning To Work Faster, Census Bureau Report Says

Main Category: Pregnancy / Obstetrics
Article Date: 27 Feb 2008 - 5:00 PDT

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Pregnant women are working longer into pregnancy and returning to work sooner than they did in the 1960s, according to a report released Monday by the U.S. Census Bureau, the New York Times reports (Roberts, New York Times, 2/26). The report examined maternity leave and employment patterns of pregnant women between 1961 and 2003 (Healy, USA Today, 2/26). The report attributes the changing trends in women's work experience since the 1960s to factors such as more options for paid and unpaid maternity leave and protections for pregnant women against job discrimination.

According to the report, 67% of women who were pregnant with their first child from 2001 to 2003 worked during pregnancy, compared with 44% in the early 1960s. About 80% of women who worked during pregnancy from 2001 to 2003 worked until their last month of pregnancy, compared with 35% from 1961 to 1965, the report found. College graduates and non-Hispanic white women were more likely than other groups to work during pregnancy.

Although the report could not find comparable data from the 1960s on the percentage of women who did not return to work after childbirth, the study found that the percentage decreased from about 36% in the late 1980s to 25% from 2001 to 2003. About half of pregnant women in 2001 to 2003 had paid maternity leave, and fewer than 4% reported being fired before or after giving birth, according to the study.

In addition, the study found that from 2001 to 2003 about 55% of women returned to work within six months after giving birth, compared with 14% in the early 1960s (New York Times, 2/26). From 2000 to 2002, 64% of women returned to work within one year of giving birth, compared with 17% of women in the early 1960s, the study found (USA Today, 2/26). The report also found that the percentage of first births to women 30 and older increased from 4% in 1970 to 24% in 2000 (New York Times, 2/26).

The report is available online (.pdf).

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