[Pregnancy and work in the area Livorno]

This document describes the observatory on working women in Livorno area. The sources of information are 1) individual information sheets collected from midwives with a specially designed questionnaire for all pregnant women from 1/4/2003 to 30/12/2006 2) data from the procedures of interdiction for risk work. The analysis of data sheets shows the following information: 9% of pregnant women are foreign and 70% are workers. The sectors where women are mainly employed are the following: Administrative (34%), Commerce (17%), Health (10%), Cleaning (6%), School (4%), Metal Industry (3%), Hair stylists (2%), Food (2%). The analysis of data by procedure of interdiction for risk work shows that the most represented sectors are: Commerce (20%), Health (14%), Cleaning (22%), Metal Industry (21%), School (12%, Hair stylists (8%) and Food (3%). There is an evident increase in the number of women who come to our occupational health service and in the number of interdiction of risk work. However there are still problems in some critical areas with predominantly female workforce (cleaning, commerce) and in case of foreign workers and women with insecure contracts.