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The maternity lab coat project
With your feedback, we're creating a maternity lab coat so you can continue doing amazing work.
The Maternity Lab Coat Project - Help Us Design It!
What’s the greatest travesty in lab work right now? That hardworking women in STEM who get pregnant are quite literally stitching together lab coats of different sizes just to have something that allows them to work in the lab into their 2nd and 3rd trimesters.
Why…?
Because there’s not a single maternity lab coat on the market right now. But we can fix that.
When we say science is for everyone, we mean it. It’s a small market, but we just can’t force women to choose between a family and a STEM career.
Just like the original Lab Coat Project, we’re starting with a survey. The survey is for:
- Women who wear lab coats and may start a family soon
- Women who wear lab coats and went through a pregnancy while working in a lab
- Anyone who has witnessed a woman struggling with lab coats during a pregnancy and would like to share their feedback secondhand
Take the 8-minute Google Forms survey now.
And most importantly - share this with a friend! We’ll need at least 100 responses and interested women to launch this.
DO PREGNANT RESEARCHERS NEED SPECIAL LAB COATS?
We've already heard from over a hundred women who struggled with wearing a lab coat during their pregnancy. Their biggest obstacles were:
- Sizing up by 2-3 sizes to fit their belly, leaving the top half oversized, falling open in the chest, and catching on equipment.
- Overheating quickly in polyester-based lab coats that lack breathability and venting.
- Being forced to buy 2 or 3 lab coats for a single pregnancy as their size changed.
- Looking unprofessional at work, and feeling ridiculous in what they were forced to wear around their colleagues.
We'll use these fan-favorite design elements
Adjustable Sizing
Our built-in adjustable belt stays safely out of the way and lets you keep extra fabric under control.
Keep your tools handy
Front chest pockets don't work well during pregnancy. We'll keep utensil storage off to the side for easy access.
Move without restrictions
Pleats in the back and rear keep you nimble and comfy, even when sitting and reaching over an expanding belly.
Protect your vulnerable skin
Long knit cuffs, quick-release snaps and a 2-way collar give max protection.
Should you even work in a lab while pregnant?
In many places scientists are not allowed to work in a lab while pregnant, but it depends heavily on the risks in your particular workplace. Not everyone who wears a lab coat is working with chemicals toxic to reproductive health or internal organs. We don't think it's fair to force women out of their workplace with general rules for up to a year every time they grow their family - we want to leave it up to the expecting parents to make the best decision for them.
Working in these areas often present minor or superficial risks, and we hope to serve pregnant researchers who decide to continue working in a laboratory during maternity:
- Chemistry labs using chemicals that do not threaten the health of the baby
- Chemistry teachers who do simple demonstrations with common substances for their students
- Biology and Microbiology researchers who focus on animal research and microbes with limited risk
- Solid-state physicists and materials scientists who work with solids and wear lab coats to prevent contamination of their experiments
- Pharmacists, Dentists, Nurses, and Clinical Researchers who can't find a maternity lab coat through healthcare-focused lab coat companies
Our first lab coats are already trusted by 2000+ Scientists Including:
First, We're listening
With over 300 insightful survey responses, we're not just working from our experience. Your stories have shown that this isn't just about productivity - it's about feeling like you still belong in your workplace.
You're telling us the features that will make this comfy and capable, helping you to look and feel great in your lab.
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We plan to start technical design in January 2025 and have production finished by the end of 2025. It could be ready as early as June depending on how the first versions test.
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We can't offer our normal 9 sizes due to the small quantities. But you're not looking for a snug fit anyway. We plan to offer sizes that cover the XS-4XL size range but use an "every other" approach to get started. The adjustable belt will help pull in any extra fabric until you grow into it.
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No one has done this before because it's a small market. The only way we can make it work is by piggy-backing off of our other 100% cotton lab coat manufacturing runs. So to start, this will use the same American cotton, steel snaps and zippers as the Louis and Curie models. This is not FR (yet) and cotton will absorb most chemicals. You should always add a chemical apron over top when working with corrosives.
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Our regular lab coats are $59. If we need to add extra snaps and use more material than average, it may be up to $69. The cost is so high because you're getting certified American-grown cotton to ensure we don't support forced labor practices common in Chinese cotton used in other lab coats. Our snaps and zippers supplier (YKK) is the most trusted hardware manufacturer in the world. The abundance of pockets, zippers and snaps takes a lot of work to sew. Just compare it to a regular lab coat and you'll see the difference in detail!
