FIREFIGHTING FOR TWO

Firefighting

for two By Lindsey Brookhart

As an Ohio firefighter/paramedic, I’ve worked in the fire service for 11 years, seven of which have been fulltime. During that time, I’ve been through two complete pregnancies, maternity leaves and postpartum periods and am currently beginning a third go-round with growing a human.

When I started out in the fire service in my mid-20s, I was single and had never even considered the idea that pregnancy and fighting fires might be something

I would deal with at the same time. It wasn’t until my husband and I began talking about having children that I realized things would have to change at work... but that didn’t seem impossible.

My mentality has always been “we’ll just figure it out” so I never saw the desire to expand our family as being something that could potentially cost me my career. We’ve all heard stories over the years about females being discriminated against, pushed out of their departments or even fired because of the things their bodies do that men’s bodies just can’t. My experience as a female in the fire service, however, has been far more fortunate than other females I know. I have had (mostly) supportive departments, co-workers, and command staff. That being said, the approach I took with my pregnancies felt no different than any other potential “issue” with my employment as a female firefighter.

BEING PREGNANT IN THE FIREFIGHTING WORLD IS NOT A NORMAL SITUATION.

Most departments aren’t prepared and may have policies in place that are so outdated and unrealistic that they’re laughable. There are places in the fire service, however, that have begun to ensure that there are paths for women to feel secure in their jobs and still expand their families. In my case, my chief was more than willing to work to accommodate my new challenges with my position. ANOTHER AREA THAT CHALLENGED ME WAS THE FIRST TRIMESTER WHEN ILLNESS AND EXHAUSTION WERE VERY REAL. I’D ALWAYS THOUGHT IT WAS TOTAL BS AND THAT PREGNANT WOMEN WERE JUST BEING PANSIES. NOPE.

PHOTO BY BECCA ELLIS

A true light duty position wasn’t an option given as a first line choice, nor did I want it. Knowing that being pregnant technically prevented me from carrying out normal responsibilities such as interior firefighting had me questioning how protected I really was from being discharged. Let’s face it, if a man had a medical condition that prevented him from going interior, he probably wouldn’t be allowed to continue working. (Note: pregnancy is usually viewed as a personal medical condition.)

Luckily, I was still able to be a D/O and could stay outside at a fire scene and operate as

a paramedic. That meant I was able to fill those positions without any issue, despite not going interior. Many departments across the country don’t have these options, haven’t cross-trained their personnel, or don’t allow employees to step away from a single area for a set amount of time. The women in these positions have a much tougher time trying to keep their jobs while preventing potential harm to their unborn children.

When I first became pregnant, there was something I didn’t quite understand but am clear about now. A woman becomes instantly responsible for another human being’s life 100 percent of the time when she becomes a mom.

That’s a big load to carry. Worrying about the safety of everything I do – especially at work – is draining. Have you ever worried about your seatbelt harming or even killing someone else if you got into a fender bender?

There were other worries about being pregnant while in the fire world. Would my co-workers be happy for me or angry that their workload would increase? How would all of this play out? Would I still be able to keep working the whole time I was pregnant? I was determined to prove I could still do the job well, whether I was outside or in the back of the medic. The fire service has bred a culture of women always having to prove ourselves. I don’t know a

single female in the fire service who doesn’t experience some level of “Say I can’t and I’ll prove you wrong” in her head and heart.

I had to remind not just myself but more importantly some of my co-workers that I was pregnant, not disabled. Reminders from them that they understood I could still do it all but that they were always ready if I needed help were vital.

The more pregnant I got, the more I gladly accepted those offers – not because I couldn’t do the work, but simply because it was easier not working around a big Buddha belly – and it was safer for my baby. I’d ask for help with some morning checks such as running the small engine equipment so I could limit the high decibel noise for the fetus. If there was a ladder that needed climbing or something had to be collected from on top of the equipment, I gladly accepted assistance. All of these things I could and would still do at a scene when needed, but having understanding co-workers who didn’t make it seem like a burden when I asked for help made me feel supported instead of cast out or looked down upon.

Another area that challenged me was the first trimester when illness and exhaustion were very real. I’d always thought it was total BS and that pregnant women were just being pansies. Nope. If I sat down in

the afternoon for more than five minutes I was instantly asleep for at least two hours. I later realized that was partly the effect of my body learning how to grow another human

and partly because I had low iron levels. I appreciated my colleagues letting me sleep unless we got a call and being willing to wake me up if something needed to happen. They even let me catch some shut-eye on the cot in the back of the medic while we staged for hours in the middle of the night for a police standoff. Just knowing that they didn’t think I was lazy made a world of difference. I found it even more helpful when my co-workers asked questions or joked with me about the changes. Just a warning: women who are expecting can be superemotional, so if a pregnant colleague takes a joke the wrong way, don’t be surprised. Feeling as if I could cry at a moment’s notice wasn’t ideal for me, nor was it a territory I was familiar with. The condition was also tiring, and constant nausea meant needing to stash small snacks like energy bars, baby food and almond butter everywhere. Some women also stash sickness bags to prepare for the constant, no-warning vomiting.

Another challenge I realized was that my male counterparts couldn’t really offer advice on uniforms. Since it’s probably been a while since you looked, let me tell you, I have yet to find a pair of tactical or duty maternity pants. Thankfully, we had a tailor in my hometown who offered a genius suggestion. We used thick ribbed elastic fabric to put in triangular panels that went from the waistband to below the hips in the side seams of my duty pants. At some point I also had to order larger pants and a bigger belt. It helped that the larger shirts and bunker pants were already available since I started my pregnancy being the smallest person on our department. I even had to give

my leather boots a break and switch back to my larger rubber boots because of the

Michelin Man-feet syndrome I developed.

There are lots of unknowns when you’re a pregnant firefighter. Even if there are policies in place, the research isn’t really there to create guidelines for what's safe and what's not and why. With my first pregnancy, I didn’t tell my supervisor until I was roughly nine weeks along and had an ultrasound, but I’d known for almost three weeks that I was pregnant. Because it was my first, I think I wanted to make sure it was real before I took that step.

WITH NO POLICIES IN PLACE, HOW WAS I TO KNOW WHEN I SHOULD MAKE THE ANNOUNCEMENT? HOW NEGATIVE AN EFFECT DOES FIRE EXPOSURE IN EARLY PREGNANCY HAVE ON A FETUS? HOW LONG SHOULD I KEEP GOING INTERIOR?

Because I like to identify as many possible outcomes as I can going into a situation, I had a conversation with my captain and chief prior to becoming pregnant to let them know that we planned to expand our family. My department was small and my pregnancy would change many things for our staffing and resources. I respected my superiors enough to let them know that my life decisions would likely be changing their work environment and I wanted to get a feel for my options.

Luckily, I was met with very straightforward, supportive answers, and when the time came to tell them I was pregnant, the news wasn’t unexpected. They were supportive and happy for me and had questions to ask. The decision about how long I felt I wanted to continue doing certain tasks was ultimately left up to me, and once I’d told them I was pregnant it was agreed that interior attack was best taken off the table.

Knowing what I know now, I have since told my employer as soon as I find out that I am pregnant. In my mind, there is no reason to wait. I have looked into the limited research about fire exposure in general for women and the risks for any type of toxic load for fetuses, and know the risk isn’t worth it. That level of fire exposure at any stage of fetal development is a bad idea.

I know women who don’t want to tell anyone they are pregnant until later because of the risk of miscarriage and the idea of having to go through that publicly.

I understand their emotional point of view, but know that increased toxic load can also increase the chance of things like miscarriage or birth defects: even more reason to let the cat out of the bag as soon as you know.

I had a very supportive obstetrician who was willing to let me either continue to work as normal or ask for medical notes for light duty. Again, the decisions were left mostly up to me. While I was thankful for this freedom to make my own decisions, it also felt as if there was very little conversation from anyone involved on what the best practice was. To be honest,

I don’t think anyone really knows, and most medical professionals don’t have a deep understanding of the physical requirements of our job or the level of risk we accept.

I was glad to at least be advised to “Trust your body. If it says you’re doing too much, then scale it back.” This also applied to physical exercise and lifting. Lifting heavy while pregnant can be unsafe but for reasons that aren’t obvious. Pregnant women become more “stretchy” as their body prepares for birth so it can be harder to do certain movements properly. The big belly and shifting pelvic bones also make proper form more difficult to maintain for safe, effective lifting. On the flip side, if you can ensure proper form and your body is comfortable with that weight, you can continue to lift just as you did before you were pregnant. During my third trimester, we had an extra person ride the medic to help with lifting patients. Other than that, not much changed.

I chose to work until the week before my due date, but given the overall discomfort I think it would have been best to have been off at least a few weeks before giving birth. One of my co-workers nicknamed me the “egg with legs” because I got so round and waddled just like Humpty Dumpty.

There were a lot of new worries. Would I fall off the side of the engine or slip off a ladder – even just from the bottom step? What about combative patients? Bloodborne pathogen exposure? Highway traffic incidents? Excessive noise exposure? Even the limited carcinogen exposure from exterior attacks or wearing gear concerned me. I was most uncomfortable while unrestrained in the back of the medic as I provided serious patient care, but that never prevented me from doing so. Worry was always in the back of my mind. Trust me, it feels nearly impossible to keep an unborn baby completely safe when the giant belly is always in the way and you have no way to shield it from whatever you’re doing. While we already have a heightened level of risk in our professional lives, being pregnant adds to that mental and emotional stress. While few people understand the challenges that pregnancy poses for a firefighter, the postpartum phase is even less talked about.

Although I live in a state that will protect a person’s job for up to 12 weeks for large family-shifting events such as the birth of a child, the state laws do not require employers to pay for that time off. Luckily, I had saved up enough paid time off to cover almost the entire time, because I couldn’t imagine going back to work before 12 weeks postpartum. I couldn’t be away from my child for 24 hours and I wasn’t yet physically ready to do my job as an interior firefighter. Childbirth, whether it’s vaginal or via cesarean, is a physically life-altering event and for a mother to be away from her first child for an entire 24 hours is nerve-wracking. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust my husband to keep our child safe, but for the first three months, it was my sole responsibility to nourish that baby. Letting

go of that sense of control was really tough.

Because my husband is a heavy sleeper, we actually got a baby monitor that was connected to the Wi-Fi so I could check in overnight when I was up.

Physically, getting back into shape was tough. From lack of sleep, to no physically strenuous activity for almost two months, to shifting hormones and a weak pelvic floor, working out for the first time postpartum made me feel like I was dying. The huge shifts in hormones caused depression. Though I was prepared for

the possibility, I didn’t understand how difficult that type of depression could be until I entered it. We all know our jobs tend to exacerbate mental health issues

and postpartum depression is no different. I was already doing whatever I could to stay physically healthy to maintain my mental, emotional, and hormonal health —but then came the added postpartum challenge of breastfeeding.

ONE OF MY CO-WORKERS NICKNAMED ME THE “EGG WITH LEGS” BECAUSE I GOT SO ROUND AND WADDLED JUST LIKE HUMPTY DUMPTY.

No woman knows what she’s doing when she goes back to work while breastfeeding and has to deal with an unpredictable schedule full of calls and long scene times while on shift that can make it difficult to keep to a pumping schedule. There’s also the challenge of finding a place where she can pump in privacy (hopefully not the bathroom!), a place to wash pump parts and a place to store breast milk safely for the entire shift. We had individual bunk rooms and a full kitchen, so for me those issues were handled easily. Pumping and breastfeeding challenges can also include mastitis which feels like you have the flu as well as a giant rock burning in your boob. It’s not fun.

I CAN SAY THAT REGARDLESS OF THE MANY CHALLENGES I HAVE FACED WITH BEING PREGNANT IN THE FIRE SERVICE, MY DEPARTMENT AND CO-WORKERS HAVE ALL BEEN VERY SUPPORTIVE AND HAVE AT LEAST ATTEMPTED TO BE UNDERSTANDING.

It’s easier for those who’ve seen a significant other go through pregnancy and the postpartum stage.

First-time moms are just as lost as the male counterparts who are trying to figure out how to support them. If a member of your team is pregnant, ask her questions, give her space if she needs it, try to get on the same page, and know that her world is a whirlwind right now that’s about to get even more chaotic in a few months!