Just wondering if anyone else has ran into trouble at work .. I am 16 weeks and I work 12 hr shifts, 3 days & three nights, but I am having a lot of trouble sleeping lately and haven't been able to do my job because I can't sleep long enough to get rested (I run heavy equipment). I know it's dangerous to do so if I haven't had enough rest but I'm not sure how to approach the situation with my bosses because I've already been given loads of trouble about missing work & as soon as I go to light duty work they will cut 1/3 of my pay

I had a similar problem with my last pregnancy when i was about 5 months. I worked nightshift and couldnt sleep through the day so one night After being awake for about 50 hours and had a splitting headache i left my shift (it was my third night in of four) I had to drive an hour home, and realised how dangerous it became as i was driving home.

Luckily it was 4am and there was noone else on the roads. At one point i slowed down as i saw a car reversing out a driveway so stopped to let him out. He didnt pull out, and when i looked again there was no car, i was seeing things. Then another bit up the road i thought i was at my junction for my street where the road splits into lanes only to realise a few minutes later i was a good few hundred metres early and had been driving on the wrong side of the road. When i got home i couldnt even remeber being on the motorway.

I phoned work and told them if i didnt sleep well that day i wouldnt be in. When i went back to work i got pulled in front of my boss who told me it was a health and safety issue that i hadnt come in (im the manager but they often run shifts without one in). I stood up asked him if my health and safety didnt matter, told him about my drive home, then told him as it was pregnancy related i was beginning to feel like i was being picked on (this wasnt an only incident during my pregnancy). Also that if i had taken the night off it would have been pregnacny related and legally nothing he could do about it.

He shut right up, the following week he offered me a dayshift position with 8 hour shifts for the duration of my pregnancy.

Please dont let it get s bad as i did. I wasnt safe and could have killed me, my baby, and any poor unfortuante on the road with me. If your not safe to work, dotn work. Tell them its pregnacny related insomnia and they arent allowed to discriminate against you, as its pregnancy related.

Sorry this turned into a novel but i still feel so angry that i put myself at such risk for a job