Question

Questão 3 (Unifesp-2013)
Work after eight months of pregnancy is as harmful as smoking, study finds
Conal Urquhart and agencies
July 28, 2012
Working after eight months of pregnancy is as harmful for babies as smoking,
according to a new study. Women who worked after they were eight months pregnant
had babies on average around 230g lighter than those who stopped work between six
and eight months.
The University of Essex research – which drew on data from three major studies, two in
the UK and one in the US – found the effect of continuing to work during the late stages
of pregnancy was equal to that of smoking while pregnant. Babies whose mothers
worked or smoked throughout pregnancy grew more slowly in the womb.
Past research has shown babies with low birth weights are at higher risk of poor health
and slow development, and may suffer from a variety of problems later in life. Stopping
work early in pregnancy was particularly beneficial for women with lower levels of
education, the study found – suggesting that the effect of working during pregnancy was
possibly more marked for those doing physically demanding work. The birth weight of

babies born to mothers under the age of 24 was not affected by them continuing to
work, but in older mothers the effect was more significant.
The researchers identified 1,339 children whose mothers were part of the British
Household Panel Survey, which was conducted between 1991 and 2005, and for whom
data was available. A further sample of 17,483 women who gave birth in 2000 or 2001
and who took part in the Millennium Cohort Study was also examined and showed
similar results, along with 12,166 from the National Survey of Family Growth, relating
to births in the US between the early 1970s and 1995.
One of the authors of the study, Prof. Marco Francesconi, said the government should
consider incentives 42 employers to offer more flexible maternity leave to women who
might need a break before, 43 after, their babies were born. He said: “We know low
birth weight is a predictor of many things that happen later, including lower chances of
completing school successfully, lower wages and higher mortality. We need to think
seriously about parental leave, because – as this study suggests – the possible benefits of
taking leave flexibly before the birth 44 quite high.”
The study also suggests British women may be working for 45 now during pregnancy.
While 16% of mothers questioned by the British Household Panel Study, which went as
far back as 1991, worked up to one month before the birth, the figure was 30% in the
Millennium Cohort Study, whose subjects were born in 2000 and 2001.
(www.guardian.co.uk)
In the excerpt from the first paragraph – than those who stopped work between six and
eight months –, the word those refers to:
a) smoking.
b) babies.
c) months.
d) women.
e) pregnancy.

Answer 1

Oie.

Alternativa D.

Bons estudos!