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Objective: Sick leave during pregnancy is common and associated with strenuous working conditions and multiple occupational exposures. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of midwifery facilitation of sessions with pregnant employees and managers focusing on work adjustment, to reduce discomfort and occupational risks., Methods: A cluster randomised controlled trial was conducted. Hospital employees were randomised to intervention or reference. The intervention group received midwifery support in addition to the standard hospital pregnancy policy provided to the reference group. Outcomes were pregnancy-related sick leave and general sick leave. Intention-to-treat analysis was performed with mixed-effect models., Results: Sick leave was similar between the intervention and reference groups, and 51 % of pregnant employees did not take any days of full pregnancy related sick leave, while approximately 21 % took more than 30 days. Group differences in mean estimates for partial sick leave were -0.5 (CI -2.3;1.3) days. Differences in full sick leave was 1.2 (CI -2.9;5.2) days, and 0.6 (CI -1.0;2.1) days for general sick leave., Conclusion: Midwifery support as an add-on to usual pregnancy policy did not decrease sick leave during pregnancy compared to usual practice in a study population of Danish healthcare professionals. Midwifery support tailored towards the specific work environment may perhaps provide better results., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Sick leave during pregnancy is frequent and 36 % of Danish pregnant employees are on sick leave > 14 days. Health care professionals are considered a risk population. This intervention applies preventive sessions including the pregnant employee, her manager and a midwife in addition to usual practiceat Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark (AUH). It is hypothesised that pregnant employees who participate in preventive sessions will have less sick leave and report better wellbeing compared to the reference group., Methods: All departments at AUHare cluster randomized. A total of 25 and 24 departments are allocated to the intervention and reference group, respectively. The intervention is protocolled with preventive sessions in addition to usual practice. The reference group receives usual practice. The primary outcome is mean number of days on sick leave during pregnancy. Secondary outcomes are wellbeing measured as physical and mental health, general work ability, work-life balance, manager support, and completed work adjustments during pregnancy. Data on sick leave will be collected from the hospital payment system and survey data will be collected at inclusion and follow-up., Discussion: This study will contribute to limited experimental research aimed to reduce sickness leave during pregnancy. The overall strength is the study design with easy access to study participants within a large hospital. The main limitation of the study is the high complexity of the study., Trial Registration: The trial is registered in ClinicalTrials.gov with ID number 29-2019-03., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier B.V.)