The university's personnel policy does not include a specific policy covering pregnancy. For this reason, Health now has its own policy to define the framework, roles and responsibility for a safe work environment when babies are on the way.

2018.01.11 | Lise Wendel Eriksen

Health gets its own faculty specific pregnancy policy which aims to ensure a good work environment for pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Particular efforts are required to safeguard the work environment for pregnant employees when their work involves e.g. the handling of chemicals, laboratory animals or inopportune working positions. Employees at Health are therefore getting a faculty specific pregnancy policy as a supplement to AU's staff policy from 2016.

The pregnancy policy determines the framework so that pregnant women can maintain as health and normal working day as possible without worrying about themselves or their child. The policy states that the immediate supervisor should invite the pregnant employee to a meeting about working conditions as soon as the employee states that she is pregnant, and to another meeting when the employee returns after completing maternity leave. The local occupational health and safety representative will be happy to assist here.  

The policy also covers breastfeeding mothers and employees (both male and female) who are planning a pregnancy and who may be exposed to potentially harmful conditions at work already before conception.

Health's pregnancy policy is available on Health's staff page. 

The individual local occupational health and safety committee (LAMU) will also assess whether Health’s pregnancy policy needs to be supplemented with local policy aspects. 

The pregnancy policy applies to both academic and technical-administrative staff. It has been prepared by the faculty's occupational health and safety committee (FAMU) and approved by both the faculty management team and the faculty liaison committee (FSU).

FAMU has also prepared a checklist which can help in meetings with pregnant staff and the planning of their work. The checklist can also be found on Health's staff page.

Contact 

Professor with special responsibilities (MSO) and day-to-day occupational health and safety manager at Health Marianne Hokland
Aarhus University, Department of Biomedicine
Email: mhokland@biomed.au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 2921 0345