Adrift in a Sea of Uncertainty: Navigating the Challenges of Pregnancy, Postpartum, and Motherhood for Field-Going Oceanographers

Balancing parenthood with professional demands is a challenge for many sea-going oceanographers. For early-career women considering or navigating motherhood, this challenge can be particularly pronounced by the physical demands and separation required to conduct research at sea. As sea-going scientists in the United States who have recently navigated pregnancy, postpartum, and oceanographic fieldwork, we shed light on these challenges, especially the lack of clear medical and institutional guidance for making informed decisions. We also highlight recent improvements, including the development of vessel-specific guidelines for cruise participation, efforts by institutions to provide childcare funding to researchers while at sea, and recommendations for staying connected to young children while offshore. While this piece refers to "mothers" and "motherhood", the included recommendations and insights are for all individuals who experience pregnancy and postpartum. We hope this article both raises awareness and offers reassurance to other ocean-going mothers that they are not alone, and that a supportive, evolving community of parent researchers exists. Research expeditions are often a crucial component of oceanographic careers and are frequently the primary method of collecting vital data. While the decision to participate in research at sea, like the decision to start a family, is a deeply personal one, we hope to spark a conversation within the community about how to make this decision more informed and inclusive for current (and future) generations.

Research expeditions are often a crucial component of oceanographic careers at all stages. These expeditions, or cruises, are frequently the primary method of collecting data and deploying instrumentation to conduct research. They can range from a single day to several months and frequently take place in offshore, open-ocean, or otherwise remote locations. Participation in these expeditions is important for professional advancement. However, oceanographic fieldwork presents significant challenges and uncertainties for women who are considering starting a family, pregnant, or in the postpartum phase. Opportunities to participate in ocean expeditions often coincide with early-career stages, including during PhD programs or postdoctoral positions, where opportunities to participate in fieldwork are especially difficult to decline.

We focus on policies in the United States because it is the system that we have experienced. However, we note that similar considerations would likely apply globally. In the United States, policies regarding the participation of pregnant individuals in research expeditions are sparse and inconsistent (see Table 1, Orcutt and Cetinić 2014). The University-National Oceanographic Laboratory System (UNOLS) does not have a single policy. Rather, UNOLS states that individual vessels and operating institutes each should have their own policies, and they direct women to find the policy for the ship they are considering sailing on (Reimers et al. 2016). However, these policies may or may not exist (Table 1). For example, some prominent United States oceanographic institutions, including Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, permit women to sail up until 24 weeks of pregnancy, coinciding with fetal viability and recommendations from the cruise industry (Dahl 2007), provided they obtain a doctor's note confirming medical fitness (Table 1). While the US Navy imposes a stricter 20-week limit, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) of the United States, which operates numerous sea-going surveys, does not presently have a universal policy regarding the participation of pregnant women at sea. Rather, NOAA opts for a case-by-case basis, provided an individual is not considered high-risk, and has a letter from a physician. While these policies provide some guidance on whether pregnant individuals can participate, they do not offer clear procedures for navigating the practical realities of contributing to oceanographic fieldwork while pregnant.

Research cruises are scheduled months (or even years) in advance, making pregnancy timing a logistical challenge. The decision to start a family and the fragility of early pregnancy are often deeply personal and private matters, particularly before 12 weeks, when the risk of miscarriage is highest. If a researcher is in the early stages of pregnancy, it can be difficult to decide whether or not to decline fieldwork, particularly if participation is an explicit expectation in their job description. It is also unclear whether a researcher is obligated to disclose an early pregnancy. In the case of one of the authors, disclosing their pregnancy to a supervisor preceded any announcement to family and friends. It is also unclear who to disclose this information to—direct supervisor, a chief scientist, captain, shipboard medical officer (if present), and/or other cruise participants?

Medical concerns at sea are a critical consideration. One issue is that many medical professionals are unfamiliar with the demands of oceanographic fieldwork, and thus may be ill-prepared to clear an individual for research. Even with medical clearance, the lack of informed guidance can leave researchers unsure about whether participation is advisable. If complications arise, is an OB-GYN available for consultation, or is the ship's medical officer trained primarily in internal medicine? Additionally, in the event of a medical emergency, do state or federal laws apply? Does jurisdiction depend on whether the vessel is in state waters, international waters, or aboard a federally owned ship? These questions have become particularly pressing in the post-Dobbs decision era in the United States, where access to emergency reproductive healthcare can be highly dependent on state law. In certain cases, the state with the closest proximity may not be the safest option.

Another challenge is the lack of standardized guidelines for deck operations across different vessels in the United States. Many cruises require long hours, physical labor, including lifting and maneuvering heavy equipment, working in rough sea conditions, and standing for prolonged periods. Pregnant researchers may be subject to significant physical strain, and there is little formal guidance on how to modify duties to ensure safety while maintaining participation in fieldwork. Moreover, the common symptoms of pregnancy in the first trimester may present many challenges for scientists at sea, including nausea and extreme fatigue. The nausea may be exacerbated by rough seas, the inability to take seasickness medication while pregnant, and, from our personal experiences, the unique and pungent smells of ocean biota. Common pregnancy symptoms may require modifications to work schedules. These adjustments would require disclosing the pregnancy, which again may be difficult in the first trimester, and discussions of what the modifications are and whether they can be accommodated.

Some institutions, such as Scripps Institution of Oceanography, are required by California state law to provide nursing mothers with an appropriate space for pumping, such as a private stateroom or a lockable meeting space. As suggested by the policy, it is indeed not sufficient in most cases to pump in a shared stateroom, which is the most frequently suggested pumping solution in our experiences. Pumping makes noise and requires light for setting up, cleaning up, and labeling and storing or dumping pumped milk. Many people also find it challenging to pump in exposed settings. It also requires space to wash and dry pump parts, which can be a challenge in rough seas and small staterooms. With some notable exceptions (which are exceedingly rare, see Table 1), there is little uniformity across institutions and vessels regarding accommodations for nursing mothers at sea. Pumping breast milk takes considerable effort on the part of the mother, thus many prefer to store and freeze pumped milk rather than dispose of it. Accommodations for storing and freezing milk that have worked in our experiences include securing a container and space within the galley freezer and connecting with the chief steward and additional galley crew to provide access to their freezers.

Just as challenging can be the logistical and cultural challenges of pumping in a shipboard environment during often busy periods of work and strict schedules for deploying equipment or processing samples. Delaying pumping for extended periods of time can cause discomfort and even illness (e.g., Mastitis), and so an understanding of the importance of pumping is critical for chief scientists sailing with lactating scientists. Pumping schedules are regular and can and should be taken into account when sample processing and gear deployment/recovery plans are being developed.

Another nontrivial challenge in spending time at sea is the need for reliable, safe childcare while away. This can take many forms, from family support to paying for additional hours with an existing childcare provider. Especially in families with working parents or for single parents, the logistics of spending time at sea as the primary care provider present a major consideration and can even prevent a researcher from choosing to participate. To combat this, we applaud the recent efforts by the Schmidt Ocean Institute for providing stipends to parents to help offset childcare costs for cruises on the R/V Falkor too, and for the University of California, which provides a childcare reimbursement program for Postdoctoral Researchers that can be applied to professional travel (https://postdoc.ucsd.edu/postdocs/childcare-reimbursement.html).

Pregnancy, the postpartum period, and the early years of motherhood add emotional complexity to fieldwork. Being at sea for extended periods can be mentally and emotionally taxing, especially when separated from an infant or young child (Fig. 1). The difficulty of maintaining contact with family, coupled with the physical isolation of oceanographic research, can exacerbate these challenges. Additionally, although the demographics of ocean-going scientists continue to diversify (Johannesen et al. 2022; Legg et al. 2023), it is not uncommon to be the only mom experiencing this separation from a child while on a given cruise, making it difficult for others onboard to empathize.

For some researchers, continued requirements to participate in ocean-going cruises and having to spend extended periods away from family contribute to a change of research focus, and we, as a field, lose qualified researchers with oceanographic expertise to research closer to shore. A possible emerging solution is the growing opportunities for remote cruise participation (e.g., Okeanos live streaming), although this may not be appropriate for all types of sampling or research.

For parents who are participating in cruises during this phase of life, we provide strategies that have been helpful for us to cope with the challenge of physical separation from a child while at sea. First, this challenge has been eased slightly by increasing virtual connectivity provided on ocean-going vessels, such as through regular video and phone calls, even far from shore. Some of the additional strategies we have employed for staying connected include: leaving behind small messages or gifts that can be opened while at sea, sending videos reading a child's favorite book, bringing a stuffy to sea to show what adventures they have gotten into, and reading (or creating) a book about how Mama will be out to sea, but returning home soon (see the book “Love, Mama” by Jeanette Bradley 2018). While each parent researcher will develop their own individual methods for maintaining a strong bond with their child across the expanse of sea separating them, we hope that these suggestions provide reassurance that there is a growing community of parent researchers grappling with these same challenges.

While we acknowledge that the decision to start a family and whether to participate in ocean-going cruises while pregnant or postpartum is a deeply personal one, there are a few recommendations that we have identified that could provide broadly needed resources to help inform the ultimately personal decision of whether to participate in cruises while pregnant or postpartum. First, evidence-based medical guidelines for pregnancy at sea should be readily accessible on ship and/or agency websites. These could inform not only an individual's decision but also guide vessel policies regarding medical emergency plans during pregnancy. Second, providing spaces aboard vessels to accommodate breastfeeding and the storage of breastmilk is important for supporting postpartum moms who want to participate in expeditions. Third, providing financial support for mothers and primary caregivers to pay for care of a child while at sea can reduce the burden of participating in cruises. Fourth, clearer jurisdictional policies regarding medical care on research vessels are necessary, especially in the United States. Finally, and perhaps most difficult, a cultural shift is needed that recognizes and respects the individual nature and challenge of deciding to participate in cruises while pregnant or postpartum and adopting flexible accommodations for participating in shipboard operations. We hope that the policy summaries (Table 1), links, references, resources, and experiences we have highlighted here can be useful for mothers faced with these decisions, chief scientists, sea-going researchers generally, and ship operators alike.

All of the authors have had to make difficult decisions to decline opportunities because of our role as mothers, but we have also reveled in the joys of motherhood and accepted opportunities while pregnant or postpartum that we hope our children will one day be proud of. As an oceanography community, we hope that we all continue to carve out space for parent researchers at sea that is inclusive and respectful of an individual's right to choose what is best for their families. Hopefully by the time our children should be faced with similar decisions, the field of oceanography will make it easier to decide what is best for their careers and families.