Pregnant in the Lab: The Maternity Lab Coat Project Survey Results

In The Lab Coat Project’s original survey of over 1500 scientists, one problem was brought to our attention by several researchers: the total unavailability of a maternity lab coat. Two women specifically said they had to sew together lab coats of different sizes while another told a story about requesting one through management and just getting blank stares. 

There are hosts of studies (see Hill, 2010; Hofstra, 2020) showing that women drop out of the STEM workforce at a much higher rate than their male peers, and much of this attrition gap happens at the same ages they are likely to start a family. 

How many brilliant minds are we losing each year that could be solving our biggest challenges? How much thought diversity are we losing when tenured professors and management positions skew heavily toward men? And forgetting about productivity for a second - it’s simply unjust that pregnant researchers have an extra burden of finding workwear that lets them continue their career without disruption.

That’s why we launched a new survey to specifically address maternity lab coats. We heard from over 170 researchers and have summarized the data and takeaways below. At the bottom of the article, you’ll find demographic breakdowns. It’s important to note that not all pregnant people identify as women - please consider this when sharing or writing about this article. 

Top 9 takeaways from the survey:

1. The 5th month of pregnancy was most often reported as the month when their regular lab coat became a problem in their work. 

2. Standard chest pockets became difficult to use for pens/utensils due to extra tightness and sensitivity

3. Standard lower front pockets became difficult to reach and risked poking from utensils in a vulnerable area

4. An adjustable belt was a critical feature named in the design. Most preferred a cotton belt over elastic because the elastic can impinge over long work sessions and wear out over time with industrial laundering.

5. About 25% wanted storage for pumping devices to use while at work. Most said they would not be able to safely pump in their work environment (such as chemical labs, bio labs, etc). 

6. Overheating became a consistent problem, so most avoided low-breathability materials like polyester and instead preferred cotton.

7. When asked about existing solutions, the most common responses were (paraphrased):

1. Purchased new lab coat 2-3 sizes up, then pinned it or had it tailored to fit 

2. Left lab coat open in front or stopped wearing it altogether, but continued lab work with extra caution

3. Stopped working in the lab altogether

8. While most of our audience cheered this effort and recognized the need from their own experiences, a few were very strongly opposed to the idea of anyone in any stage of pregnancy working in a laboratory. Some had local laws prohibiting pregnant researchers from entering a lab at all. 

9. A maternity lab coat is badly needed by thousands of pregnant researchers every year who make due with unsafe solutions, and the lack of availability can have downstream effects in the STEM pipeline.

When is it time to get a maternity lab coat?

Respondents were asked what month their regular lab coat “becomes a concern for your work”. Of the researchers who had gone through pregnancy with a lab coat, the most common answer was the 5th month (41%), with 18% saying it could affect them as early as their 4th month. 

Solutions

How to approach an adjustable waist

Of our proposed solutions for an adjustable waist, most favored a single lab coat large enough for their 3rd trimester than can be pulled in to fit them at earlier stages. An adjustable cotton belt safely on the inside (similar to the existing Curie lab coat design) was preferred over an adjustable elastic waistband. A few of the comments mentioned that elastic bands can impinge and rub uncomfortably over a long work day, or that they can lose their elasticity during industrial laundering (spandex loses stretch while bleached, for example).

Post-partum wear and pumping in the workplace

The need for a maternity lab coat doesn’t go away the day after the baby is born. Many respondents commented that their original lab coat would not fit them again for several months after birth, if ever again. A maternity lab coat would give them the option to come back to work sooner and have PPE that fits them right away until they feel comfortable moving back to a non-maternity lab coat.

Although it’s typically not safe to pump in a chemical or biological lab, about 25% of respondents said they would benefit from a pocket to hold a pumping device in their lab coat. Keep in mind that not everyone wearing a lab coat is constantly exposed to hazards, and these issues should be discussed with local EHS and safety officers based on the work environment. 

Why they don’t exist - and how they make do without them

There have been attempts to make maternity lab coats in the past, typically by small businesses without existing lab coat lines and customers. These companies are no longer in business and the only remnants are a few web pages copied to overseas eCommerce aggregation sites. 

There is no public evidence that any of the larger lab coat companies have ever tried to offer a maternity lab coat - although some do offer solutions in the form of scrubs in the healthcare industry. Their lack of effort in developing a product has not stopped them from advertising on “maternity lab coat” keywords with landing pages that make it seem like they have a solution, but simply offer their standard products. 

Simply put - it seems the math hasn’t convinced the larger companies that it will be profitable enough to pursue. Why develop a difficult, niche product when your next color drop or newest slim fit will sell 10x the quantity? 

We see it a bit differently. 

• According to The American Chemical Society data, roughly 10,000 chemistry and biochemistry bachelors’ degrees are awarded every year to women. 

• According to the NCES database, roughly 88,000 women receive biological or biomedical sciences bachelors’ degrees each year. 

• If only 10% of these researchers wear lab coats during a future pregnancy, that’s still nearly 10,000 lab coats per year that could be needed by the USA alone. 

• For Genius Lab Gear specifically, sales as few as 500 per year would let us continue manufacturing and stocking maternity lab coats in one style. 

• It’s just something worth doing. It can make a big impact at a critical time for researchers and helps create the world we want to live in. 

Below are some direct quotes of how expecting survey respondents adapted on the job without a maternity lab coat available:

“I've had to sew my own from the top of an XS and the bottom of a XXL. The fabric frays quickly so I don't know if my current one will last another pregnancy.”

‘Throughout my 2 pregnancies, I just chose to not wear the coats, since I couldn't fit in them anymore.

‘When I was pregnant I had to get bigger coats and folded the sleeves”

‘No options were available that fit. I had to buy a 6XL and have it tailored. “

‘When I became unable to snap my coat I shifted to desk work.’

How much does this affect career prospects and retention?

We also wanted to know if this matters. Does it actually affect daily work, frustrations, or even retention in STEM fields? 

We asked: “Does the current lack of maternity lab coat options impact your career prospects and retention in STEM fields?” On a scale of 1-5, with 1 being “no real impact” and 5 being “strong impact”, the median response was a 3. Responses were quite well distributed with 18% saying “no real impact” and 15% saying “strong impact”.  

It really depends on the researchers’ personal circumstances and work environment. The quotes below more directly illustrate the impact it can have on their day-to-day work:

"Everything is just tight and uncomfortable, or it's a sack. That's really it. You already feel uncomfortable with your own body, why not add something that makes you feel worse about it." 

"I already felt like a whale, wearing a ginormous XXL coat just so my belly would be covered only made this worse and served as a constant reminder of the fact that Science remains a man's world…"

"My only option was to find a coat in the lab that was way too big for my pre-pregnancy body. Even with that, my belly got too big to button my coat so I walked around with my belly sticking out of my unbuttoned coat. Not a good look and definitely didn’t instill confidence." 

"I had to go up 3 sizes to get around the belly, then pockets were too low and the sleeves were too long and huge (didn't have tight cuffs). I caught things with the droopy sleeves and had to do an incident report for knocking over a beaker of concentrated base." 

"I normally wear the smallest size, but experienced that I couldn’t close the buttons anymore and had to do cell culture work with my belly exposed. So I took bigger lab coats, but then the sleeves were too long (also ours didn’t have any elastic bands around the wrists, so I used rubber bands or hair ties to close them). When doing lab work that wasn’t cell culture but at a bench, the lab coat was too long for walking around (I’m also not tall). And the bigger labcoats were heavy (fabric wise as well), and during summer I was getting these hot flashes constantly so took often trips into the cold room to cool down 🥵🥶"

Criticism and praise on the project announcement

Not everyone thinks a maternity lab coat is a good idea. We received 3 negative survey responses and a few other critical messages or comments via social media. It’s certainly valid that many laboratories may be too hazardous for pregnant people to even walk in the door - especially when often-used chemicals have been identified as reproductive hazards. This PMC article is a nice summary of what’s currently known. 

However, our survey and the reception on social media showed that many pregnant women and pregnant researchers are in fact working in laboratories through most of their term, for better or worse.  

Most of the criticism implies that every laboratory is a dangerous environment for an unborn child, which would be easy to assume coming from a chemical or BSL lab background. Most of the positive comments we received about working in the lab while pregnant described doing basic cell cultures, animal work, solid-state physics or materials experiments, or other work where risks are mostly superficial such as dirt, cuts, and skin irritation.

We heard from some critics that in their countries or cities, it’s now illegal to step foot in a laboratory if you know you are pregnant. This errs on the side of safety, to be sure, but may have downstream consequences on the workforce.

If a pregnant researcher is immediately forced out of lab work for 7 months of pregnancy plus about 3 months of leave (10 months total), and they have 3 children in the span of 5 years, how will their career trajectory be different than their male counterparts after being locked out of the lab for 50% of the time? What if their lab had no real hazards to unborn children that whole time? This is why sweeping laws prohibiting pregnant researchers from the lab from the day they find out may be doing unintended harm.  

Our position is that it depends on the specific work environment and pregnant researchers should be able to choose for themselves what type of hands-on work to continue doing, assuming they are provided with detailed safety information and a risk assessment from a professional safety officer. 

Criticism quotes:

“In any normal working environment, women are not supposed to work in the lab as soon as they find out they are pregnant. They are reallocated for office work.” 

“Pregnant women should not be in the lab and are not permitted in the lab due to the potential harm to a baby. No labcoats for pregnant women.”

“Why should you work in a lab when pregnant? In chemistry labs it's usually not possible due to the chemicals used. I cannot imagine any lab being so spill and accident free that it would be worth the risk for the unborn life and mother-to-be! There are more than enough tasks to be done out of the lab on the laptop/PC, especially now in the age of digitalisation, robotics and AI!”

Praise quotes: 

"When I worked in a lab while pregnant, I mentioned to the lab coat vendor that going up several sizes wasn't safe and he told me "well, maybe you shouldn't be in the lab anymore." I saw RED! I'll complete your survey and re-post to my network." 

"This is awesome. As a woman who did lab work while pregnant, I appreciate this so so much ❤️🙌."

"THE WAY I BOUGHT A LAB COAT LIKE 4 SIZES BIGGER BC I WAS THE LEAD INSTRUCTOR AND COULDN’T FIT MY LAB COAT. Thank you ❤️❤️ please also make sure to have inclusive sizes for the big pregnant folks (like I was!)"

"I was pregnant exactly when I was in the middle of my PhD, so I still had lots and lots of experiments to do. And it was SO difficult (=nearly impossible) to find safety-products designed for pregnant women 🤯 😭."

What we’re going to do about it

The reality is that thousands of pregnant researchers continue working in lab coats every year, and they need better workwear. Taking the fan-favorite design elements of our Curie lab coat, we’re going to start by introducing a 100% cotton maternity lab coat with steel snaps, knit cuffs, a convertible Howie-style collar and an adjustable belt. Together, these features will meet the most common lab safety requirements while making an adjustable, breathable, and comfortable lab coat for pregnant researchers to continue their work if they so choose. 

We love to name our lab coats after scientists who embody the values we share and want our customers to share. So we floated 10 naming options for the maternity lab coats - all are mothers who continued exceptional careers in STEM. The most-liked options were, in order:

1. Alma Levant Hayden

2. Katherine Johnson

3. Vera Rubin

4. Helen Free

It’s quite fitting that Alma Levant Hayden was the top choice. Her first name is also the Latin word for “nourishing”, including the common term “alma mater” which translates to “nourishing mother”.

Alma Levant Hayden was an American Chemist, mother of two, and by all accounts the first African-American woman to work in a science position at an agency in Washington, D.C. (per ACS). She worked at both the NIH and FDA, and her work was critical in exposing a highly touted anti-cancer serum as being nothing more than a creatine supplement. Our first maternity lab coat will be named “The Alma” in honor of her important contributions and trailblazing while also balancing motherhood and family life.

Who were the survey respondents?

Experience with maternity and lab work

More than 50% were either currently expecting or had already gone through a pregnancy while working in the lab. About 38% of respondents had not had this experience yet but were concerned about what they would do when it happens. 

Type of work performed

The majority of respondents worked in wet biological or life sciences, followed by another large group doing wet chemistry. The rest were dispersed between dry processes, clinical work, field work, or mechanical/machine work. 

Stage of career

About a quarter each of our respondents were either graduate students or scientists working as individual contributors (including post-docs) at non-industrial settings. About 15% each were also lab managers or industry professionals including lab technicians.