Pregnancy and uni?

[LouMorgan97]

Hi everyone! So I sat my university interview for an adult nursing degree a few weeks ago and have been accepted on an unconditional offer! As you can imagine I'm over the moon and due to start in January. However, shortly after accepting I found out I was pregnant and low and behold, due in January obviously I'm thrilled about the pregnancy and can't wait to meet my little bean but I'm wondering if it's possible to defer a nursing degree? I'm scared to email them and them then retract my offer because I worked so hard for it! Realistically though I'll be at least 36 weeks gone when the course would start and wouldn't be able to complete any placements. Just wondering if anyone here has gone through a similar predicament and if so were your unis understanding or did they just make you reapply?

[milkjetmum]

Deferrals are at the discretion of the uni, but I think they would almost certainly agree in your circumstances. They might also suggest that you start and then 'suspend' rather than deferring (as this has a more flexible timeframe if you for example want to take more or less than a year off), but no harm in talking to them and they certainly can't withdraw your offer just because you ask! Congratulations

[Bobbybobbins]

My sister got pregnant at the end of the second year of her degree and they deferred the final year for her.
Congratulations on being accepted for the course and on your pregnancy!

[LouMorgan97]

Thank you both for your replies! I think my biggest worry is having to redo the entire interview/ application process again because it was hard I think emailing would be worth it I didn't know they couldn't just retract an offer I was worried over that, I've found a lot of posts on other sites with people in similar situations but they never update to say what the uni said about it

[Superscientist]

Look at your unis deferral policy and leave of absence policy. For taught courses they often prefer you to take a full year as the course has a specific structure and order to it.
Your request may go to the special cases board where they decide what is the appropriate option. Universities are worried about a load of deferrals due to covid as it is going to seriously impact their finances so they might be more rigorous in their process but this looks to be a perfectly legitimate reason for a deferral.

[CoolNoMore]

I ended up having two babies during the course of my degree and the uni couldn't do enough for me. They should have a pretty clear understanding of what counts as discrimination, and denying you your hard-earned place due to pregnancy would definitely qualify!

I went back part time 6 months after DS1 was born and it was the best option for me - I had just enough focus for 3-4 hours of work per day, he slept enough to accommodate that and I felt I wasn't falling too far behind. Consider all your options though, and do what's best for you.