First of all, we're navigating systems that haven't been built to support a female through their lifespan in a career in the CAF. Female reproduction wasn't considered in the medical system when we stood it up, and it's not captured in the supports we have.
Again, for the 6.7% of CAF members who have received physical training support during or after a pregnancy, that includes through a pregnancy and the postpartum period. They can take a year to 18 months after childbirth, if they want. It's really up to them when they return to duty. They have to complete their FORCE test—which is our physical fitness standard—to be able to DAG green, which means that they're able to deploy.
We notice that after pregnancy, there is a decrease in physical fitness, so they need to take time, just as they would after an injury, to rehabilitate the body to be able to again perform the tasks to the same capacity they would have before.
We have these females who are preparing for their FORCE test, and they also have to be adapting to their life demands, which have changed. Realistically, most of the time they are the primary parent, providing services to their kids. If they're in a dual-service relationship, their partner is probably gone, so they're having to prepare physically for a test that may or may not pertain to the duties in their job. They have to then also prepare for the tasks of their job. They're doing all this without specialized support.
Most of these females have never gone through a kinesiology or physiologist training program—that's a fairly unrealistic expectation. Their medical support doesn't have women's health training, so when they go to their medic and explain that they pee themself whenever they're running and ask if it's normal, they're told it is. However, they've never actually gone through training to understand that, after six weeks, if we gradually return someone to a running program and provide pelvic floor physio, urinary incontinence is not actually a normal thing. It's a common experience postpartum, but it's not normal.
We don't have medical support that can ask appropriate questions. I'm getting a little off track here, but I'm talking about the physical demands for occupations as well.