Yes, this is a thing.
Once upon a time, I was a pregnant worker whose baby was poisoned by my toxic job. The new hire smiling below, never imagined the nightmare awaiting us... I am sharing this story to protect other babies from workplace abuse. Please be kind in the comments, this is painful stuff, even several years later. I avoided deli meat, soft cheese, & sushi, took daily walks & expensive prenatal vitamins, only to have my baby injured by work-stress hormones. I attended every prenatal appointment. No one ever asked if I was being abused at work. I was a new employee who'd never worked in a toxic job & naively excused abusive colleagues as rude & jealous, but otherwise harmless. They told me they wanted to be Latina (they are white) & had been unable to become pregnant themselves. Deep pain that was not mine to tend to. I tried to avoid them by changing projects & steering clear at company events. I had no idea how dangerous they could become in a toxic workplace that forces employees against one another for company profit like Squid Games or Gladiators. I overworked while pregnant due to impossible work demands & advocated for my team in a company that exploited & gaslit us with platitudes of being "a family" that values diversity. Just hold on they'd say, this period of extreme workload will end. My OB found a problem requiring weekly “baby stress tests." I developed pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes, & had an emergency C-section. I was unable to take full maternity leave due to workload & workplace sabotage. I was so exhausted & dazed from 60 hr workweeks while raising an infant, that I could not see what is now obvious in hindsight. My workplace bully was organizing peers, supervisors, & my own team against me, to form a mob and a final career kill shot. I will never forget the terror I felt the day I was unlawfully terminated. I never imagined that the employer I had sacrificed so much for, would fire me. The devastation of institutional betrayal resulted in trauma that undermined my ability to attune to my baby. Instead of locking eyes and gentle caresses while nursing, I sobbed and stared blankly into space. Dr. Gabor Mate explains in “The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture,” that chronic stress of pregnant & nursing workers is associated with the following injuries to babies: -language development problems -BMI and obesity -insulin secretion issues -immune system problems -lowered IQ -asthma -reduced ability to respond to stress. After spending thousands of dollars on various therapies for my baby, he is recovering but many babies are not so lucky. I am interviewing workers whose babies were injured by workplace abuse in utero or infancy to raise awareness about this underdiscussed issue. If you would like to share your story, please send me a DM. Please share this post to spread awareness!