A recent study reveals that the mother's work could influence the baby's health at birth increasing the chances of having congenital defects if employed by the cleaning, scientific or electronic equipment operator.
A team of researchers has studied about 9,000 babies with a birth defect, such as problems with vision, hearing, gastrointestinal tract, mouth and face, among others and 3,400 children who had no congenital defect.
The objective was to evaluate what relationship there could be between the work of the pregnant woman and the birth defects of the children. Three quarters of the mothers who were investigated were working during the period of the previous month during pregnancy and the end of the first trimester.
The results were the ones mentioned above. The women who worked as cleaning employees, electronic and scientific equipment operators had a significantly higher risk of having a baby with birth defects. On the other side of the scale were the teachers, who were the least risky.
Personally I do not observe any relationship between cause and effect or, in other words, I fail to understand what connection there may be between work and congenital defects according to the results.
One might think that the cleaning workers spend a lot of time standing, on the move, and that this could be the cause of having more risk, however the scientists also have a higher risk and yet have a less physical job.
Then the issue of stress appears as a possible cause, but being a teacher does not think it is one of the most relaxing professions that exist and yet they are the ones that come out better.
Apparently the researchers did not analyze possible relationships between chemical compounds to which women could have been exposed nor did they take into account the number of hours worked.
Perhaps these two factors, and not the profession that each woman plays, are the real causes of increasing the risks of congenital defects in babies (right?).
