Maternal and Child Health Among Female Firefighters in the U.S.

Abstract

Objectives Despite increasing attention to the occupational impact of firefighting, little is known specific to the health of women firefighters. In particular, quantitative data is lacking on the impact firefighting has on maternal and child health for women who become pregnant while working as firefighters. Methods A total of 1821 women firefighters responded to requests to complete a self-report survey of questions about pregnancy. Women answered questions about their departments' policies and practices and their own experiences of pregnancy. Those participants who reported a pregnancy while serving as a firefighter were asked detailed questions about their pregnancy and outcomes. Results Female firefighters reported that nearly a quarter of their first pregnancies while in the fire service ended in miscarriage and that increased to a third of pregnancies by the fourth. Rates of pre-term delivery also were high among this population. Conclusions Findings have important implications for policy and practice among women who become pregnant while actively serving in the fire service.

The Prevalence and Health Impacts of Frequent Work Discrimination and Harassment among Women Firefighters in the US Fire Service

“…Recruitment strategies are more specifically outlined in previous publications [23, 24] but included recruitment through contacts with previous participants, emails from organizations (e.g., iWomen, International Association of Firefighters), listserves (e.g., www.firefighterclosecalls.com), and through social media postings. Secondary recruitment included requesting any women who completed the survey to share the solicitation with their women colleagues.…”

“…This study and its protocols were approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the National Development and Research Institutes, Inc. Details about the survey protocol and consent can be found in Jahnke et al [23] and Haddock and colleagues [24]. This survey focused on women in the career fire service specifically rather than including volunteers as career firefighters are exposed to the greatest risk, are more active responding to calls, and spend more time in the culture of the firehouse [24].…”

Pregnancy, childbirth, and puerperium outcomes in female firefighters in Korea

“…Firefighters are engaged in fire suppression (FS) as well as in emergency medical services (EMS) and rescue [5]. The firefighting service is a unique work environment wherein all classes of reproductive hazards may be found [6]. The potential hazards also faced by pregnant female firefighters and the number of female firefighters in Korea has steadily increased from 6.34% in 2013 to 7.54% in 2017 [7,8].…”

Women Firefighters’ Health and Well-Being: An International Survey

“…Previously, shift work, heavy lifting, high temperatures, loud noises, physical strain and environmental toxins have been noted to impact reproductive health McDiarmid, Lees, Agnew, Midzenski, & Duffy, 1991;Nilsson, Andersen, Strandberg-Larsen, & Andersen, 2014;Stillerman, Mattison, Giudice, & Woodruff, 2008). A recent survey of US WFF reported that the majority of WFF were actively running emergency calls whilst pregnant (Jahnke et al, 2018). Moreover, nearly a quarter of first and second pregnancies and nearly a third of third and fourth pregnancies, ended in miscarriage (Jahnke et al, 2018).…”

“…However, despite a growing body of research for male health in fire services, currently there is limited work on the specific health needs of women (Jahnke et al, 2012;Sinden et al, 2013). Within the WFF population previous research has identified high alcohol intakes (Haddock, Poston, Jahnke, & Jitnarin, 2017), high rates of depression (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010), anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide (Stanley, Hom, Spencer-Thomas, & Joiner, 2017), as well as pregnancy complications (Jahnke, Poston, Jitnarin, & Haddock, 2018). Most published women specific research originates from the USA and to our knowledge there is no documentation on women's perspectives of health and wellbeing needs, particularly surrounding gynaecological health.…”