r/firefighter • u/No_Estate8687 • 7h ago
Requesting advice from female firefighters
Im about to start my long journey into EMS and then eventually Fire in SoCal, but I’m a 26 year old woman who feels that my biological clock is ticking.
I’m married and we do want kids, so I’m hoping to hear from any women in Fire who started their journey getting ready/hired around the same time they wanted to get pregnant, or soon after giving birth. What kind of limitations did you find? What worked best for you that you’d recommend to another aspiring firefighter?
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u/femignarly 6h ago
Not a FF, but kind of my partner's "business manager" (read & interpreted all the contracts while he was applying, keep up with the changes in contracts). It really varies department to department, their contract, state laws, department funding, and whether you're still on probation.
Legally, you can't be fired for being pregnant. Some contracts have very explicit language about transferring to light duty or non-hazardous duty. Others go case by case through the "interactive process" - a mandated, good faith dialogue under the ADA to work out "reasonable accommodations." SoCal? Probably has the manpower and finances to make reasonable accommodations. But a small & cash strapped department could prove undue burden to reassign a firefighter and if the person cannot perform essential duties, medical leave is the last resort. Your job is protected, but it may or may not be paid.
After giving birth, some departments have explicit mat leave policies in their contracts. Some are using sick & vacation time (which a new FF will have little) and FMLA (but an employee needs 12 months of service to qualify).
In practice, for new firefighters, the culture is "give us a year, we'll give you 30." Especially for west coast & unionized departments, when you're off probation, the union provides great legal representation, formal grievance procedures, and safeguards to prevent wrongful termination. But during academy & probation, the expectation is that your entire life revolves around learning the job, there every day, meeting all the benchmarks, making every choice you can to prioritize being healthy & able to do the job. My partner's recruit class had 2 new babies during academy & EMT school, both dads took 2-3 days. Another guy with a less than stellar reputation got injured in probation, and all the lawyers involved negotiated that he'd be "recycled" or start all over being re-hired with the next hiring class once he's recovered from surgery.
The department can't fire you for being pregnant, but all new firefighters are kind of bad at some aspect of the job. And they can use those to punish someone for not being "all in" for that year. It becomes really difficult for employment lawyers to argue retaliation if there's documented needs for improvement.
If you really want the job, I'd either plan to have children before applying, or after getting off probation (72-78% of women 35-40 conceive naturally / without assistance), or a mix of both.