If your pregnancy is planned, you probably would have given a lot of thought about how to manage your career as the pregnancy progresses. However, if the news is something of a pleasant surprise, you should take some time for a serious consideration as to how you can best manage your work responsibilities without placing your baby at risk.
Is working in pregnancy considered safe and healthy?
With advancements in medical science and health care systems, working while pregnant is no longer as risky as it was half a century ago. Though most first-time parents do freak out about it, your work life isn’t a big threat to your unborn baby unless you are working in a physically hazardous or strenuous environment. Since you would most likely be under professional medical care from the first time your OB/GYN confirmed your pregnancy, you should have a pretty realistic view of whether your particular line of work is a threat to your baby or not.
To begin with, you would have to ascertain whether you would like to share the good news with your colleagues straightaway or not since it is after all a part of your private life. However, as soon as you are ready to tell people at work, the first thing that you should do is tell your immediate superior about it and then schedule a meeting with your HR manager to go over the maternity benefits that your company provides you with.
The second thing you need to ensure is that your pregnancy doesn’t affect your performance at work too drastically. Though you are legally entitled to take breaks more often when you experience nausea or tiredness, you should try and maintain your performance by strategically planning out your breaks and work flow.
Until what time in pregnancy can one work?
There is no hard and fast rule about when you should stop working while you are pregnant. Some women choose to avail their maternity leave as soon as they are allowed to do so by law and some women choose to keep working right up to the moment their water breaks. Though rules about maternity leave differ from country to country, the earliest time that you can avail your leave in most developed nations is approximately 11 weeks before your due date. In case your doctor recommends you to take off work earlier than that, you can take some of your annual leave in addition to the maternity leave as well. Most women choose to work right up to their due dates though a lot of female workers avail their maternity leave 2-3 weeks before the due date.
Does the nature of work determine the tenure of working?
No two pregnancies are alike which is why there are no set rules which tell you how much physically strain you should put yourself through at work while you are pregnant. If your work is particularly physically challenging, your best option would be to ask your obstetrician what kind of working hours or how many hours a day can you safely put in at work without putting strain on the baby. Depending on how long you work in the same company and what kind of a rapport you share with your superiors at work, you can also ask to be placed at a less physically challenging position for the duration of your pregnancy.
How can you best take care of your pregnancy while working?
After the determination as to what kind of benefits you are entitled to be provided with by your employers, you need to determine exactly how physically taxing your work schedule and commutation are for you. If required, you can ask for a change in timings or even a different job profile and timings if you have a long or tiring commute schedule. To ensure that your pregnancy and your work life can co-exist smoothly, you would need to take better care of yourself. You can ask your employer to provide you with a place to rest (including a clean, dry and well-ventilated place to lie down in) if you don’t already have one in your office. Most importantly, you need to stay in constant touch with your doctor to avoid any kind of complications
Wear comfortable clothes and shoes and make the necessary diet changes so that you need to compromise neither your pregnancy nor your work. You can place a box or a stool under your desk and put your feet up for a few minutes every few hours to avoid swelling.
You can ask someone from your workplace who has been pregnant during their tenure for tips. You can even join a support group for expectant working moms to get a better understanding of how to deal with challenges that occur while balancing pregnancy with work.
