Nursing student/Is it a bad idea to take Chemistry Lab

Hello, I am 12 wks-1st pregnancy-I do not work but I am a student.This semester I was scheduled to take Organic and Biological Chemistry along w/the lab.If I have a face mask on will my fetus be at risk? I am already prepared to change courses if so but if it I can go ahead and take this course would really put me ahead.(Dont get me wrong the safety of my pregnancy comes first) My class starts Monday and my next doctors visit is Tuesday, and I will not participate in the lab until I get the okay from my doctor and professor-but I am curious to know sooner.Anyone familiar with this situation?

 

You can call your doctors office and ask to talk to either a nurse or your doctor and they can tell you what they recommend before your appointment on Tuesday.

 

Ask your prof. what they think, when I got pregnant I was in my A&P class and when i talked to my Prof. she said I should drop the class because we would be using chemicals in our lab that could harm the babies. So your prof. may know, also I know my college wanted a Dr. note stating it was ok for me to attend certain classes (sciences).

 

I would think you would be ok. I took labs when I was preggie with my oldest. I double gloved and wore long sleeves, in case of spills, and stayed away from fumes as best I could and he turned out ok.

 

I took Organic Chem lab I and II a few years ago. I had gone through a number of chem labs before, but those ones were particularily nasty. We had fires, explosions, spills, and a lot of glassware breakages, not to mention some of the things we were making were poisonous if we were exposed to them.

My guess is your Prof will tell you to pass on it for now and pick it up later. Long sleeves won't help you unless you're wearing an outfit that's resistant to whatever you're making that day. The same goes for a mask - you'd need one that filtered out what you were dealing with. There's no universal solution there.

For me, the danger wasn't what I was doing, it was what some idiots in my lab got themselves into. One girl actually burned down her experiment plus her lab notebook. Another wasn't paying attention and the hoses on her condenser came off, showering everything within a 5ft radius.

You also don't know what they're storing in the lab, which may have nothing to do with what you're working on. My sister plus about 25 other students had to get treated for mercury poisoning last year. They were storing it in her lab and the container leaked. They didn't catch it for weeks.

I'm not trying to scare you. I just feel like in these situations you don't always have control of what's going on around you. I've worked with chemicals for years and wouldn't take the risk myself.

 

I would speak with your professor and your doc. When I got pg with DD I was taking microbiology and A&P. I don't remember having any restrictions that put me behind. I may have had some but they weren't anything that interrupted my class.

GL with school! I just started my final semester today and will graduate in May. It's been a long journey but well worth it!

 

Thanks alot for the suggestions.I now have a scale to weigh my conscience on......so now it is up to the dr. and prof. to tip the scale-whether to pass or if theres more of a chance that I will be safe.Thanks a million!

 

I teach college biology and with A&P and other such labs the chemicals aren't particularly volatile but orgo is a whole different story. In my bio class we work with petroleum ether in the hood and I tell them if there is ANY chance they could be pg to STAY AWAY from the hood. You are much more likely to have contact with nasty things in orgo... just talk to the prof and be careful!!!