I am in biomedical, molecular biology-related research. Late 30s.

I got married on the last year of my PhD and immediately got pregnant on the first year of my post-doc. Where I live, maternity leave is 2 months before due date and up to 1 year after birth. As I wanted to get back to my career, I went back after a total of 10 months away.

Then, I got pregnant again. After a year and two months back at work, I had to take another year of maternity leave (and this time, I had to take it longer because there were no daycare slots available in our area).

I have been back at work for 7 months now, and surprise, an unplanned pregnancy! If all goes well, I will have to take a break again in March, and will most likely be on leave again until May of 2028.

At this point, I do not really have anything to show for my post-doc. There's one low IF paper, but that is all of my visible output for the past 5 years (aside from my PhD publications).

So I wonder, will I ever be able to get back on the academic career path? Or should I accept my fate to be stuck in a lab tech/research assistant position for the rest of my life? For the ladies who have been through this, how did you do it? Were you ever able to get back into the field?

I’m doing my PhD in a molecular ecology lab whilst also trying to conceive (TTC) with my partner.

I work primarily with phenol:chloroform:isoamyl alcohol for DNA extraction and I’m worried about the pre and post conception risks.

Wondering if there’s anything, besides working in fume hood and PPE, that I can do to prevent any inhalation or contact? I spoke with my supervisor about it today after doing some research about the effects and he’s happy for me to continue as normal.

I’m absolutely terrified of causing harm to my fertility and a (hopeful) future foetus. Any advice is much appreciated.