A new report has found more than a third of women described their pregnancy as a crisis pregnancy and half were partly because of financial concerns.
The study by the Health Service Executive's Crisis Pregnancy Programme and the Equality Authority surveyed more than 2,000 women whose children were born between July 2007 and June 2009.
It found that 27% of working women who experienced crisis pregnancy said workplace factors had contributed to the crisis.
It also found a strong link between unfair treatment at work and crisis pregnancy.
30% of women reported unfair treatment related to their pregnancy and 5% reported they were dismissed, made redundant or treated so badly they had to leave their job.
Unfair treatment was more common among younger women, women expecting their second child, women working in the retail and wholesale sector and women working in organisations with few flexible arrangements.
Unsuitable workloads and unpleasant comments as well as the denial of promotion were among the most common complaints.
30% experienced problems with maternity leave including pressure to return early and being contacted too often.
Almost a quarter of women felt that their opportunities for promotion had decreased on returning to work after they gave birth, while one fifth felt their opportunities for training had decreased.
The study also found that women with higher earnings and better education levels were more likely to avail of extended unpaid maternity leave than women on lower incomes.
The HSE said financial concerns were becoming a bigger issue when it came to crisis pregnancy and the profile of those experiencing crisis pregnancy was changing, with more than half married and in their early 30s..
The Equality Authority said employers needed to learn lessons from this report and more information was needed to make employers in certain sector aware of their employees' rights and their responsibilities.
