Did you tell work early due the nature of your job?

[oedipamass]

I have been on a few threads here where ladies are telling their bosses right away about their pregnancies "due to the nature of (my) job".

I am only 5 weeks along with my 1st, so I have no idea what is okay for me to be doing and what I should delegate to others due to the pregnancy. My job sometimes requires lifting and carrying heavy things, working around chemicals, etc.

I would love to hear about the aspects of your job that make you need to tell (i.e. dangerous, uncomfortable, etc. things) so I can make an informed decision. Thanks!

 

[newmommy21]

Well mine is a little different. I told my boss about a week after I found out and was 8 weeks along. I told her because she is an ob/gyne doctor and since I do not have a family doctor of my own. So she got me all set up with bloodwork etc.

But I also told her because I was having horrible MS and had to take a few days off. She completely understood and was and is so very very helpful!

 

[Em1991]

Hi, I'm 7 weeks tomorrow and work as a support worker with 2 men with potential to challenging behaviour. The policy at my work is that as soon as you find out you have to tell your manager and get moved to a more safer service. I will be telling my manger when I come back off a/l next Sunday when I will be 7+6 days. Although I don't want all the other staff to know I am pg, I'm not sure how that will work but I hope she respects that I don't want anyone else to know and makes up an excuse why I will be moving services. Scared to tell her though! Xxx

 

[MrsClark24]

I told mine straight away. I was working within oral surgery which meant working with lots of chemicals and gruesome stuff :-/ The worst was that I was working with Chloroform and taking a lot of Xrays and hand devleoping them, off of which aren't good for pregnant women esp not in the first trimester!

You've got to think that the first trimester is when everything is being created, to me it's the most important time. If something isn't made correctly then there's no going back... So to me I didn't want to inhale something and for it to affect the development of baby.

Lifting and carrying didn't bother me to start with, but defo working with chemicals isn't a good one! My work were a set of ***** with me because I basically refused to carry on with my normal working day, but now I'm 30+5 with a healthy baby girl! One of the other nurses was pregnant with twins around the same time and she didn't say anything, however she lost one of her twins around the 4month point and even know she doesn't know how much was caused by work....?

I think if you're in doubt get the manufacturers instructions for the chemicals you're working with and see if there are any contraindications or special instructions for pregnancy. Choloform and xrays all have it in theirs so I was really careful!

And.... you can tell your line manager on a need-to-know basis, and if you say that only the people who need to know are to be told then they can't be telling everyone in your workplace until you're ready to. My live manager and dentist knew and that was it from 4 until 13 weeks.