What are your thoughts on this maternity/work question?

I don’t think I’d allow her to bring her child to work in your environment. At best, the baby will be a major distraction especially if it’s cute. It’s more likely to be a disruption… I’ve raised three babies, and only one of them actually slept the majority of the time. Babies demand and need attention, and not on any set schedule, either. Depending on what you’re doing in your lab, it could even be downright dangerous.

If there’s any way to do some of the work from home, I’d be all for that, though. If there’s enough interest in your workplace, it’d be great if you could offer some sort of on-site daycare, too.

I’d be surprised if she was actually medically cleared to go to work within 3 weeks to begin with! That said, I definitely wouldn’t want the liability risk if anything were to happen to the baby. I’m not sure what you guys do in your lab, but I know lab techs that had to stop working with certain things when then became pregnant because of the risk to their unborn baby. I can’t imagine that would be much different with a newborn. Most daycares won’t accept babies until they are 6 weeks old, so she won’t be able to find childcare until then unless she finds someone that will do it at her/their home and is willing to do it sooner than 6 weeks.

If she can work from home, that would probably be best for her. Daycare on site would be great, but those are rare in my experience. Perhaps your boss can check with the liability insurance (or whatever insurance he has) to see what they say about having a newborn in the lab. If the insurance company says it’s a problem, then he has that to go by.

Personally, I wouldn’t want to take my child to work in any situation with me that may put them at risk. As a nurse, I come in contact with so many different things, I wouldn’t ever want to risk exposing my child to something.

Could you tell us what type of lab environment it is? I have a few friends with PhDs, and their lab work wouldn’t put the child at risk. I agree with augustlan’s response though. It will be a distraction for both the parent and the co-workers bringing a baby to a community work environment.

Our lab does a lot of different things, and I think they’re minimally risky to the child, but it’s definitely not a babyproofed environment. We hired this researcher primarily to do functional imaging studies and behavioral tests with human subjects, so it’s not exactly dangerous? But definitely suboptimal.

@nikipedia Thanks for the additional information. It’s a real struggle to imagine how this can logistically work if having a baby will be a distraction. Even if the co-workers get used to it, I don’t see how one can accomplish this type of job and maintain focus.

If it should work out in her favor, here is one suggestion. Our office complex had a secured room for women who were breast-feeding their child. It was a really nice addition for those that needed it.

Unless 1) you are prepared to extend this facility to all your staff; and 2) willing to undertake the necessary alterations to your work schedules, shifts and the like; and 3) undertake to make the environment child proof: forget about it. What should be offered, if possible, is very flexible work hours, work from home, and so on.

Question: why is she returning to work so soon? 3 weeks is not half long enough.

I don’t have babies, so I defer to the moms on here (although, many moms with newborns seem to have trouble doing tasks more complicated than grocery shopping, much less doing them quickly and efficiently).
But, to the women in science issue – I love women in science. But a worker of any gender who’s more of a hindrance than a boost really needs to go, and if she’s making it harder not just for her to do the job she’s paid to do, but others to do their jobs as well, then she’s not really helping the movement out and being a good feminist role model. There are ways to have both family and career, but I really don’t think this is one of them.

To me having children is a career choice. Raising children is a very skilled and demanding career, not to mention time consuming. Women in science is also a demanding career. I don’t think you can do both at the same time. I don’t think it is fair to other employees to ask them to cover for one while she changes diapers, breast feeds, comforts, nurtures, etc.. Experiences such as this by employers only make it more difficult for the next woman to be hired. It becomes too costly and complicated.

Women should decide what career they want and have one at a time.

This is a tough one. Maybe in whatever European country this woman is from, her decision is normal and would typically be supported. Hopefully there will be time between her arrival in the US and the baby’s arrival to work out a solution that makes everyone happy. She may be in for some culture shock if she’s coming from an environment where moms who work are treated differently they they are here.

Just so you know how drastically different parenting attitudes can be in Europe: There was a story in the news a while back about a couple visiting the US from Europe (I forget where exactly). They decided to go to dinner, so parked their baby (asleep in a stroller) outside the restaurant and went in to enjoy their meal. Someone called the police and they were arrested for endangering a child. They were shocked because where they come from, parking baby strollers outside while eating or shopping is a common practice and seen as courteous to people who don’t want to be around babies while in public. Something I’m sure a lot of Jellies can relate to. ;) I read about this in a book called Free Range Parenting, which was fascinating if anyone cares to check it out.

Anyway, your boss should be guided by company policy and talk it over with this woman as soon as possible. Imagine how she’d feel if no one told her she couldn’t bring her baby to work until she was already here in the US! I’m sure the rest of you at the lab would like to know that you won’t have to go out of your way to accommodate someone with a small baby on a daily basis.

Also, I think a company willing to work with new parents benefits more in the long run. Like you said, a highly educated female scientist is something you don’t run across every day. Working with her (and other parents) probably helps the company over the course of years by attracting workers who see the company as family-friendly. I’m sure there are also benefits for the company as far as reducing the costs of replacing employees over the years.

Another thought: Maybe she feels she will lose this opportunity if she is away for more than three weeks.

@bea2345: There are four of us who work in the lab. I’m guessing if we gave her the go-ahead to bring the kid, the rest of us would be able to do so as well, but none of us are in any position to have a child any time soon. I assume she’s planning to return to work quickly because if she takes too much time it will be impossible for her career to recover.

@noelleptc: We’ve never met her and don’t know anything about her personal life, but I would guess it is.

@MissAusten: I was thinking along the same lines—there might be some cultural differences here, and she might not even think it would be an issue.

As far as providing childcare, our lab is part of a university. I don’t think there is any way to cause institutional change without altering the entire University of California system, and we are like half a billion dollars in debt right now and childcare is just not going to happen.