Hulteen, 74, contends that her employer, Pacific Bell — now AT&T — did not properly weigh her pregnancy leave into her retirement and other benefits. The case centers on whether women who took pregnancy leave before 1979, when the Pregnancy Discrimination Act went into effect, should be entitled to the benefits the law provides. The Pregnancy Discrimination Act, an amendment to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, prohibits discrimination on the basis of pregnancy and allows those on maternity leave the same coverage as other medical leave. AT&T changed its policy when the act went into effect, effectively treating pregnancy leave the same as temporary disability leave. The court ruled in August that pregnancy leave taken before the discrimination act must be treated the same as disability leave. Communication Workers of America , that workers were not entitled to retroactive seniority credit for pregnancy leave that occurred before the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. read more

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A supposed “pregnancy pact” that drew worldwide attention to eight teenage girls at a Massachusetts high school may be fiction, the city’s school board chairman says. Reporters took notice of the fishing community northeast of Boston last week after reports that 18 girls at Gloucester High School — more than four times last year’s total — learned they were pregnant this spring, and school principal Joseph Sullivan told Time magazine that eight of those girls had agreed “to get pregnant and raise their babies together. Ray Lamont, editor of the Gloucester Daily Times , says his reporters, who have covered the pregnancy spike since March, did not find any pact. Time reporter Kathleen Kingsbury, who originally wrote that the girls believed to be in the pact “declined to be interviewed,” later told National Public Radio she had spoken to many of the girls and their friends, but all were unwilling to be identified. Gloucester High School, “home of the fighting fishermen,” is now home of an alleged pact between students to get pregnant together in Gloucester, Mass. read more

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Certain seafoods are reportedly high in mercury, and this balance between the good and the bad of fish is most important for pregnant women. Mercury builds up in fish living in water contaminated by industrial pollution. Wu says pregnant women should eat seafood, but the kind of fish matters. Salmon, tilapia, perch and shrimp were some of the fish found to have the least amount of mercury, and according to Dr. read more

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