AIBU to want to wear a mask again in my classroom

As long as the kidscan hear you clear,y I don't seean issue. As someone who is hard of hearing the mask mandate made things very difficult for me as couldn't lip read

To describe it another way:

Catching mild illnesses when pregnant is like a cheat's way of giving your baby temporary immunity when born.

It means the baby doesn't have to endure the illness himself, but gets the antibodies as if he did.

The alternative is letting the baby be born with no immunity, so the poor baby has to endure the illnesses firsthand in order to build antibodies himself, with his own immune system.

It is so awful when your newborn has a cold. My baby had one, went through periods of holding his breath for ages because coughing was so uncomfortable. It was literally just an ordinary cold but because he was only 1 week old, we thought it would kill him. It didn't kill him, and he's now immune to that particular cold, but if only I'd caught it a month earlier, he'd have been immune to it already.

You can't catch em all but you can catch as many as possible to give your baby the best immunity you can.

Op, you really must expose yourself to mild colds to protect your baby later.

Yes!!

Does anyone else think that this parent is such a pain in the arse that if it wasn't the mask, it would be something else? Thinking of some of the batshit complaints I had as a teacher.

Your employer shouldn’t be expecting you to disclose your health information to anyone to justify reasonable adjustments such as mask wearing.
if your employer isn’t behind you on this, speak to your union.

You are totally not being unreasonable. Anyone should be able to protect their health by wearing a mask if they choose. Everyone has a legal right to safety at work and coming into contact with large numbers of children with potential health conditions including Covid is a genuine risk given your medical history. You should not have to explain your reasons to anyone and this parent quite honestly sounds very ignorant and a bully. If their child finds people in masks, many of whom are disabled, to be anxiety inducing then the parent needs to support their child to realise the needs of others are things we need to embrace rather than be afraid of.

Posters here who are challenging you should remember that pregnancy is a protected characteristic under the equalities act. Wearing a mask would be viewed as a reasonable adjustment and preventing you from doing so could be legally challenged as discrimination.

This thread is really bonkers. The OP has said that none of the children she teaches has a hearing loss. The classroom does not have opening windows or an air filtration system. She teaches in a secondary school so all of her students will have experienced being taught by teachers wearing masks during the pandemic. The OP is wearing an FFP3 mask, not a flimsy paper one, and this is supported by her school. She plans to wear the mask until she has vaccinations next month. OP has lived with being immuno compromised for some time, has had significant issues with previous pregnancies, and is now midway through a high risk pregnancy. OP has explained how difficult it would be for her school to find supply cover for her (and I'm well aware from my own work that it's almost impossible to find teachers in some subjects at the moment).

But people are accusing her of health anxiety, telling her to open a window, the mask won't protect her, she will be affecting the hordes of hearing impaired children she is teaching - and best of all, most people aren't even addressing the question she was asking.

OP - no, of course you shouldn't have to explain the reasons why you are wearing a mask to the parents of the one child out of 500 who is complaining! Your first responsibility is to do whatever you feel is necessary to protect your unborn baby. Good luck with the rest of your pregnancy.

This will also be the reason pregnant women are being encouraged to have the new RSV vaccine; so that the antibodies cross the placenta and protect their eventual newborn.

The masks may protect op from the inconvenience/annoyance of the common cold.

But then her baby will be born with none of the common recent cold antibodies. The baby will be so vulnerable.

Please believe me, a 1 week old catching a nasty cold is much worse than having a cold when pregnant. Newborn babies can die of colds.

Whereas it's extremely rare/unlikely for a pregnancy to be adversely affected by a common/mild cold.

Catch colds now, to protect your newborn later.

I couldn't care less if anyone else wants to wear a mask just don't make me wear one. There's no way I'd be wearing one all day. Briefly for certain situations I'd tolerate it if I had to.

YANBU

I know one teacher who was off from late Feb right until summer having been knocked for six with a chest infection. Another teacher had to teach in downstairs classrooms following their return from covid because it affected their chest so much they were breathless walking upstairs. Both previously fit and healthy.

In an ideal world, people wouldn't be pressured to attend work / school when ill, and public places such as classrooms would have HEPA filters - both measures which would reduce the level of viruses circulating.

I agree - the school has decided so that’s that. That ought to be helping you to block these emails though.

That does seem a sensible option, tbh.

PotteringAlonggotkickedoutandhadtoreregister
Even in the height of Covid we didn’t wear masks to teach in; it’s just not feasible.

We all know that it is feasible to teach wearing a mask, because we have done it.
I had to do it before and after Covid due to a poorly ventilated workshop under H&S orders (and yes the pupils had to wear one too).

Is it really any wonder why so many people leave to profession when even other teachers are expecting colleagues to martyr themselves, when simple protective methods will allow us to protect our health and wellbeing.

This. The amount of comments saying masks don't protect the wearer is ridiculous.

FFP2 / FFP3 provide the wearer with great protection, as well as stop the spreading of germs. If you want protection, it's those ones you need to be wearing (and make sure it's fitted properly around your nose), not the basic surgical masks. The basic surgical masks are good when worn by someone who is sick to prevent germs spreading, but are not as effective as FFP2.

FFP2 are your friend. FFP3 are more for use in a medical setting by health professionals.

But my very own GP has told me that children missing out on exposure to infections over covid/lockdown means they are now dealing with less mature immune systems, hence more frequent illnesses as they 'catch up' (absences for which the schools are coming down heavily on children).

Our immune system learns from exposure to infection. How is my understanding wrong, here? Genuine question.

My sons teacher still wears a mask sometimes - she has an immune condition. No one bats an eyelid, I don't understand why anyone would have an issue.

Totally agree @Youthinkyoureuniqueyourejustastatistic . Public health messaging in the U.K. has been consistently appalling. There were so many opportunities to explain things better. Whether it’s how the virus spreads (airborne and what that means in simple terms), how you protect yourselves from that (ventilation and good quality masking, then explaining how masks work; it’s concerning that people think they cause a lack of oxygen!), explaining vaccinations (amazing for stopping hundreds of people dying a day, but they don’t stop you catching Covid and the jury’s still out on if/how they protect against long covid) onto actually explaining what Covid does long term (pretty much everyone I know in real life has no idea about the long-terms harms of Covid infections, or they believe Covid isn’t dangerous for kids 🤯. Although I’m not sure whether they genuinely believe that or just don’t want to face reality). It’s such a shame, because there have been so many missed opportunities to educate and therefore protect the public 😞.

I honestly feel that if your pregnancy is high risk you should consider going off sick so that you don’t have to endure the stress of this any more, it can’t be good for you. Also schools are not healthy places at the best of times. I used to work as a TA and we were always catching viruses from the pupils as had to sit close to them.

The management team should be advocating for you. I applaud the fact that you are trying to be diligent for the sake of your pupils and don’t want to take sick leave when you don’t feel sick. But if the school can’t protect you from parental complaints during a high risk pregnancy I would be putting my own physical & mental health before the needs of the school at this particular time.

This.
And also, breastfeeding is amazing for building your babies immune system. If your worried about illnesses the best thing you can do is breastfeed if you can

Ffp2 or ffp3 masks provide excellent protection to the wearer, so ignore the naysayers on this point. (This is extremely well researched and these type of masks have been used to prevent airborne transmission to the wearer for many years, before the pandemic.)

As someone who is also particularly vulnerable to infection, as is my teenage child, I 100% support you in protecting yourself and your pregnancy from a preventable infection.
You are being completely reasonable, whilst I understand mask wearing masks some people around you anxious, your health is the priority.
Support can be put in place for those who find it difficult to cope seeing other people protecting themselves.
Please don’t let these people prevent you from protecting yourself.

Some things you can do to protect yourself (and your students) in addition to a well fitting ffp2/ffp3 mask, opening windows where possible and HEPA filters in your class room.

I've only read the op's updates so apologies if this has already been mentioned.

Op, after your baby is born, he/she retains the antibodies from pregnancy for 6-12 months. So for example, if you catch a cold, the antibodies from that particular cold will protect your baby after he is born.

It is a good thing for your baby, if you catch coughs and colds when you are pregnant.

If your baby is born without the common antibodies to coughs and colds, they will be more vulnerable than an average baby.

Please do not isolate yourself from common mild illnesses while pregnant, it's not the best thing for your baby.

(Edit for grammar)

The parent has a problem. Maybe she would prefer a string of daily supply teachers or unqualified staff to teach your subject.

You sound like a fantastic teacher. You have done a great deal to mitigate any problems and concerns your students may encounter.

Eyes play a big part in facial gestures and can be easily read and not hindered by a mask.

Do parents have the same problems with people who have beards and moustaches?

My mum was deaf but stated that the eyes conveyed the meaning and the emotion of a conversation.

Please continue to look after yourself and the baby. I hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well and you and your baby keep well.

This parent is probably an anti-masker / anti-vaxxer so just try and ignore them. Seems many on this thread… The school is supportive so stick to your guns. Can you report the parent for harassment if they continue? Your headteacher needs to be protecting you. If it carries on can you get signed off sick by your GP due to the anxiety of it and your condition?