Should I be Working at 30 weeks pregnant?

[Hollybob77]

Hi I have been told I shouldnt be working past 28 weeks pregnant is this correct?

OP please note that any response from pre-covid times is irrelevant. The penalty of a vague opening question.

So in your scenario during COVID could you do work in the back rather than with the public do you minimise risk?

@stevematekatemate

I worked to 38 weeks.

It’s a baby, not the plague.

I was supposed to have stopped at 6 weeks, it was 2 weeks in fact! I was marking exam papers in hospital.

@MissingCoffeeandWine why would you need to use maternity leave? The current practice within the NHS is that if you are in a patient facing role then from 28 weeks you can go onto special leave you shouldn't have to use maternity leave. I don't know anyone who hasn't done this and we've had several pregnancies in our unit since the pandemic started.

OP if you are unvaccinated and dealing with the public every day then you probably shouldn't be working past 28 weeks. I'm not sure how much pay you'd get if you weren't there though as I'd imagine small businesses would struggle to pay people who weren't working.

@CormoranStrike

I’ve heard that teachers have this option - not sure if it’s true.

I worked to 32 weeks and believe that’s average.

Anyone has this "option". You can start your mat leave anytime from 29 weeks. But you still only get the same length of time off, so you would have to go back to work sooner.

I would say 32 weeks is earlier than average. Most people I know worked until around 35 to 37 weeks.

Depends on your job surely?

DC1 I worked until a week before the birth (38wks). DC2 I worked until the Friday before they were born by section on the following Tuesday (35wks).

There's clear guidance if you google clinically vulnerable. Pregnant women are in this group, but shielding has finished so you are expected to go to work.

As a few people have said shielding isn’t relevant here, third trimester pregnant women are ‘clinically vulnerable’ not ‘extremely clinically vulnerable’ and have not been shielding (apart from specific scenarios ie if they have a serious heard defect)
The current guidance surrounding pregnancy is that in third trimester extra care needs to be taken and social distancing strictly adhered to, so if your job doesn’t allow this, then you should be redeployed/wfh/be suspended on full pay until your planned maternity leave starts. If you can work safely in your current role then you can work as long as you wish to, you need a risk assessment doing 🙂 I work for huge national company and even with their HR dept it took a while to sort, but all ok now 👍🏻