Woman calls out the ‘cruel standards’ pregnant women face when forced to work during their pregnancy

A lawyer who is pregnant with twins has spoken out to blast the ‘cruel standards’ that pregnant women face in the workplace, while detailing her own struggle to cope with the physical and emotional toll of impending motherhood while attempting to maintain a full-time job. 

Leena Yousefi, 39, a successful lawyer from Vancouver, Canada, took to LinkedIn to share an eye-opening post about the dangers of workplace stress for pregnant women, claiming that many mothers-to-be find themselves being forced to ‘sacrifice’ their health in order to ensure their financial security. 

‘For the past 2 months, I have been forced to lay on the bed in my work clothes before work in the morning, unable to move, think or function,’ the mom-to-be wrote, while sharing an image of herself laying flat on a bed with her computer in the background. 

‘I wake up in a constant state of chronic depression, nausea, aversions to everything, disabling migraines, a numbness to the world and lack of happiness that at times is one of the scariest things I have ever felt.’ 

Leena went on to warn that the stress being placed on women who are being forced to work full-time through the first trimester of a pregnancy could well be to blame for increasing miscarriage rates.  

Leena Yousefi, 39, a successful lawyer from Vancouver, Canada, revealed that her success has come at a price in an eye-opening LinkedIn post

In her post, the lawyer discussed the ‘cruel standards’ women are subjected to while being forced to choose between ‘work and being human’ 

‘Then we wonder why the rate of miscarriage is astronomical and why it is often related to stress,’ she continued. 

‘Having to rest to literally create life — a heart, a brain, organs — is often treated either as vacation or unpaid time off at best. 

‘In our most fragile state, we are threatened with our security if we don’t get up and force ourselves to work to earn money for our families. Either we sacrifice ourselves or risk our financial security.’

She continued to discuss how most women are expected to work without any disturbances in the first trimester – which is often the most difficult. 

She added: ‘Being pregnant with twins has been the hardest physical challenge I have ever gone through my life.’  

Leena is the CEO and founder of YLaw, one of the most successful female-led law firms in Canada, and prides herself on creating a workplace where women can thrive no matter their background, with over 80 per cent of employees being women of color, pregnant women, people on parental leave, and single mothers. 

Despite her success and willingness to accommodate her employees, Leena shared how difficult it can be to balance work and pregnancy in her vulnerable post, where she reminded everyone that pregnancy should be treated as a major health condition. 

In her post Leena describes the ‘fragile state’ women are in while pregnant and says those who are pregnant are often ‘threatened with our security if we don’t get up and force ourselves to work to earn money for our families. Either we sacrifice ourselves or risk our financial security.’

Although Leena acknowledges she is ‘lucky’ to be in a position to give herself the breaks she needs despite work, she knows that ‘not everyone else has this choice.’ 

The pain and frustration the lawyer has experienced has inspired her to change policies at work so that employees who are pregnant aren’t suffering at work. 

She ends her post by sharing her hopes of connecting with ‘men and women who had to go through this but couldn’t speak up for fear of sounding ”weak” or jeopardizing their job.

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She encourages employers to reexamine the ‘cruel standards’ women have been subjected to and pleads with society to ‘create a world where our children do not have to choose between work and being human.’ 

Leena shared how difficult it can be to balance work and pregnancy in her vulnerable post, where she reminded everyone that pregnancy should be treated as a major health condition

According to Mayo Clinic, the first trimester includes, tender, swollen breasts, nausea with or without vomiting, increased urination, extreme fatigue, heartburn, constipation and heightened feelings of anxiety and stress. 

A 2017 study found that miscarriages are much more common than many think, with ten to 20 per cent of pregnancies resulting in a miscarriage and approximately 43 per cent of women who have had a child have experienced a miscarriage.

However, most research has shown that there is no link between maternal stress and miscarriages.  

One study found that maternal distress doesn’t impact uterine blood flow or umbilical blood flow, which means that stress has no effect on a fetus’s access to nutrients or development.   

And although there is no direct link to acute stress, such as from work or relationship problems, being a cause of miscarriages, there has been research which suggests that added stress can be a potential risk factor on top of other causes, but stress alone is often unlikely to cause a miscarriage. 

Mayo Clinic notes that a miscarriage is often caused by a chromosomal abnormality that interferes with the normal development of the embryo.  

There is often nothing that could’ve been done to prevent a miscarriage, however, managing any chronic conditions, such as diabetes or high blood pressure, and avoiding smoking, alcohol and using illegal drugs, can decrease the risk of a miscarriage. 

While there is no evidence to suggest that acute stress can result in a miscarriage, stress can affect your pregnancy by worsening the more common causes of miscarriages. 

A 2017 study in Scientific Reports found that although chromosomal abnormalities are usually the cause of a miscarriage, psychological factors like chronic stress, such as the stress caused by poverty, can increase the risk of a miscarriage by 42 per cent. 

Although there is no scientific study that shows a correlation between stress and miscarriages, heightened emotions and extreme symptoms during your pregnancy often make it near impossible to work some days. 

Although many users empathized with the lawyers struggles and shared their similar experiences, one user told Leena to ‘stop complaining’

Many users empathized with the lawyers struggles and shared their similar experiences. 

One woman described her own pregnancy and said: ‘The company I worked for considered pregnancy a total inconvenience and promoted men above women time and time again, as they didn’t have babies. Change is long overdue and empathy and compassion from employers will be rewarded.’ 

‘Moms are amazing,’ wrote another user. 

‘Women should have an option to experience a pregnancy in a different way than when we did. I can only tell you that the greatest thing about being pregnant is the baby on the other side,’ one user commented after struggles working while pregnant. 

Another women offered up a solution to employers and said: ‘We need to create a work life which allows people to be human.’ 

While most users felt for Leena, one user told the lawyer to ‘stop complaining’ and ‘start telling the feminists to shut up, and start teaching your daughters the value of being a woman, and bringing life to the world, and raising children.’