[Histonet] pregnancy in histo, my story

[Barbara Stancel]

Dear Stacey,

I began in histology in the very early 1970's. I was fresh out of college 
and technical school. Histology was a portion of my overall position as a 
grant tech for four Vet college professors and the department head. I had 
never heard of ASCP and almost nothing about safety. I had an unventilated 
room with one window. It was at the end of the hall and the end of the 
heating and AC ducts!! So, I had to run a fan in the summer and a little 
portable heater in the winter. Neither appliance was grounded or had any 
safety features. I did lab animal necropsies, fixation, processing(a brand 
new Technicon that lifted the tissues out of the solvents!), embedding, 
microtomy, staining, coverslipping in the same 16'X20' room. All the 
solvents were stored in there along with any acids, bases or any other 
chemicals I needed. I did about 250 to 350 blocks a month. And produced an 
average of 1500 slides a month because I did all the student sets for 
parasitology, along with the research and grad student work.   Universities 
were not know for their desire to provide a safe environment for their 
employees.

I also did all of the clinical parasitology for the college. Two days a 
week, I  did ALL fecal parasite counts for the small and large animal 
clinics and all mail-in material, as well as total gut splits from necropsy. 
Total gut splits? Yep, you take the entire digestive tract of an animal (a 
50 gallon trashcan full from an adult cow), split it and scrap all the 
contents out, separate the fecal matter from the intestinal parasites and 
count the parasites. Sounds awful, but it was very interesting.

My position did not change during my pregnancy. My department head was mad 
at me for being pregnant!!! He was so upset that he quit talking to me in my 
8th month until 3 months after I came back to work. He even tried to prevent 
me from using sick/maternity leave. He considered my "condition" was 
"elective" not medical. He always made sure that no one was available to 
help me. I can remember being so pregnant I had to turn sideways to get 
close enough to the big sinks (the kind that you could bath a St. Bernard 
in) to handle those gut splits. I am still grateful to all the Vet students 
and necropsy room techs I drafted from the hallways to help me get those 50 
gallons of guts going.

I was young and naive and not terribly assertive. When I think back I 
realize I was discriminated for being female and pregnant. But I had a good 
paying job and benefits. And since my husband was still in college, I could 
not quit. It was a marvelous learning experience for me. I learned ALOT 
about histology, parasites, and myself.   I don't know why I still have a 
nose, lungs or brains. I had one uneventful pregnancy. A very healthy baby. 
Through the grace of God, my grown daughter is quite normal.

I am not proud of my lack of knowledge during those times. I was not stupid. 
I just didn't know any better. It wasn't until the late 1970's that I 
started learning about all the hazards. By that time, I had switched to a 
new position in a federal laboratory where safety was developing as a new 
issue.

My, My how things have changed!!

Barbara
Athens, Georgia

From: Stacey Burton <staceylburton <@t> yahoo.com>
To: histonet <@t> pathology.swmed.edu
Subject: [Histonet] pregnancy in histology lab
Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 12:38:05 -0800 (PST)

I am performing a pole for some inquiring employees.  If anyone would like 
to comment - Thank you.

1.  Have you ever been pregnant while working with in the histology 
laboratory?

2.  Did your work duties have to be altered while being pregnant and to what 
extent?

3.  Did working in the histology laboratory effect your pregnancy in any 
negative way?

Our laboratory does perform regular ppm testing for xylene and formalin.

Thank you for any comments for our pole,

Stacey L. Burton, H.T.  ASCP
Laboratory Manager
Unipath LLC
San Antonio TX
210) 521-7700
staceylburton <@t> yahoo.com

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