Researching how people deal with early pregnancy endings while working

An OU academic has launched a survey to collect the experiences of women and people who have had early pregnancy endings while working.

Jo Brewis, Professor of People and Organisations, in the OU’s Faculty of Business & Law, who has become well known for her wide-reaching research on menopause at work, is now leading on another under-studied area – the experiences of those who have navigated the demands of work at the same time as experiencing a termination or miscarriage (including ectopic and molar pregnancies) up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The Early Pregnancy and the Workplace Survey draws together a consortium of academics from the OU, Aston University and the University of Essex and third-sector organisations working on miscarriage and termination (the British Pregnancy Advisory Service and Abortion Rights).

Professor Brewis said:

“This project is really important because it focuses on the lived experience of navigating a variety of early pregnancy endings whilst in paid employment. This is a very under-studied area: we have only been able to locate one previous publication dedicated to terminations in this context, and only eight which discuss miscarriage.

“We want to be able to ground our recommendations to HR professionals, line managers, trades union representatives, third sector organisations like our project partners Abortion Rights and the British Pregnancy Advisory and women themselves in the data we gather, as well as expanding academic knowledge about these experiences. Our project is also significant because it is gender inclusive: we very much welcome people who do not identify as cis women but have had one of these experiences to take part in the survey”.

Read more at: Early pregnancy endings and the workplace

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