This group was started to provide support to zookeepers who are pregnant or who already have children.

The zookeeping career has some unique challenges in regards to pregnancy and motherhood. While pregnant, you may face dangers such as zoonotic disease transmission, exposure to anesthetics or radiation during veterinary procedures, or injury during animal handling, heavy lifting, or climbing. New mothers may have challenges returning to work because of an atypical work schedule and location-- making it more difficult to schedule daycare, pump breast milk, etc. Mothers of older children may find their work schedule (weekends and holidays) causes them to miss out on some family activities.

Hopefully this group will provide a community of zoo moms who we can ask questions and share stories. Sometimes it's nice to hear from someone who has already made it through a hard situation that you may currently be facing.

This group was inspired by a paper written by Sarah Christeson and Rosalie Rust which was presented at the 2006 AAZK National Conference and received a great response. It would be wonderful if we could build on that paper by collecting more data on "Zoo Moms" through this web group and present our findings in future conferences and/or publications. Perhaps our findings can help some zoos make themselves more "mom-friendly" by improving working conditions for pregnant women and women with children.