Noise can pose particular risks for pregnant employees. As an employer, you must plan, conduct and follow up work so as to reduce the noise employees are exposed to. You can read more about the risks on our pages on noise.

Vibrations from work equipment, machines and vehicles can pose special risks for pregnant employees. You can read more about the risks on our pages on vibration.

Extreme temperatures can present particular risks for pregnant employees. This applies especially to extreme heat. Workplaces must therefore have a suitable temperature that is adapted to the activity. For work outdoors, you as an employer must ensure that the workplace protects against wind and weather as far as possible. You can read more on our pages about temperature and climate.

Fatiguing physical loads are not necessarily hazardous to the health of pregnant women, but can cause musculoskeletal disorders if they are repeated frequently or continues for a long time.
When it comes to ergonomics for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders, physical loads that are hazardous to health are primarily characterised by high or long-term low physical loads, as well as repetition of similar working movements (over and over again), without sufficient breaks for recovery or adequate variation of movement.

You can read more about the risks on our pages on ergonomics for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders.

In all workplaces there are microorganisms that cannot be seen with the naked eye. There are, for example, bacteria, viruses and other substances that can pose special risks for pregnant employees. As an employer, you also need to take into account other risks of infection in addition to rubella and toxoplasmosis (see prohibited work further down the page).

Infections that can be transmitted between animals and humans are called zoonoses. Some zoonoses may pose an additional risk for pregnant women.

Working conditions that can lead to, or have led to, mental exhaustion, strong mental stress, violence, threats, or victimisation, can pose special risks for pregnant workers. You can read more about the risks on our pages on organisational and social work environment, as well as violence and threats of violence.

• ionising and non-ionising radiation; see also provisions in the Radiation Protection Act
• chemical substances, especially
  • carcinogens
  • mutagens
  • reprotoxic or organ-toxic substances
  • mercury and mercury compounds
  • cytostatic drugs
  • carbon monoxide
  • chemical substances that are absorbed through the skin
• certain processes where carcinogenic substances arise
• underground mining

As an employer, you must not engage an employee who is pregnant or breastfeeding in mining work underground, if an assessment has shown that the work may entail special risks of harmful effects on pregnancy or breastfeeding or cause other ill health.

Special risks may be work situations that involve exposure to, for example:

• impact
• vibration
• noise
• ionising radiation
• physical loads

You will find more examples of risk factors in the Swedish Work Environment Authority's provisions and general guidelines (AFS 2023:2) Planning and organisation of work environment management – basic obligations for those with employer responsibility, Appendix 1.

As an employer, you must not engage an employee who is pregnant or breastfeeding in work with lead, meaning work where lead or lead compounds can be absorbed into the body. Work with lead means all work with a risk of exposure to lead. The employee therefore does not have to work with lead themself.

Since lead can be stored in the blood and bones, even exposure before a pregnancy may have an impact on the risks. As an employer, you must always inform female employees under the age of 50, who have a job where they are exposed to lead that, in the event of a pregnancy, exposure to lead may pose a risk of damage to the fetus.

As an employer, you must not engage an employee who is pregnant or breastfeeding in work that involves smoke diving or chemical diving. Rescue work in smoke-filled or chemically contaminated conditions means that the employee is exposed to very great risks, partly due to extreme heat and dangerous smoke gases, and partly due to the highly physically and mentally demanding work.

As an employer, you may not engage anyone in night work who is pregnant or has given birth less than 14 weeks prior, if a medical certificate shows that the work would be harmful to the employee's health or safety. As an employer, you must offer work during the day where possible.

As an employer, you must not engage an employee who is pregnant in work where they are at risk of being infected by rubella or toxoplasma, if the employee lacks adequate protective immunity against the infectious agent.

As an employer, you may not engage anyone who is pregnant or breastfeeding in diving work or other work under increased pressure. Thus, this ban applies to work that is carried out underwater or under increased pressure, such as in pressure chambers or the like. Such work involves great physical stress and the risk of other effects on the body.

There are special rules in the Radiation Protection Act for activities with ionising radiation that apply to pregnant and breastfeeding employees. Pregnant employees have the right to be assigned tasks so that the radiation dose becomes as low as possible.

Read more in the Radiation Protection Act (in Swedish):

Radiation Protection Act (2018:396), Sveriges riksdag website