to take a maternity cover post when ttc?

[Fizzy13]

I'm finishing a fixed term contract at my current job and they have asked me to stay on to cover a colleague's maternity leave.
It a great opportunity, I'm very happy there and would love to stay.
However my son is almost 3 and we would like to have a 2nd.

Is it unfair to start the contract knowing that there is a chance that I will be pregnant and possibly off on leave myself before the end?
I don't want to stitch them up as they are lovely.

However, we tried last year for #2 and haven't managed it yet. There is no guarantee that I will be pregnant and it seems silly to turn down a good contract in case I make life difficult for them later.

Any thoughts?

Ime you need to seperate the two. As you already know, pregnancies do not tend to come to order.

Carry on with whatever suits you best professionally and personally as seperate entities until you have to balance them.

Also while it’s good to not want to drop your employer in it, it’s not actually your sole responsibility. Don’t let someone else’s business dictate your life.

Is the maternity leave that you'd be covering one year? If you were to get pregnant how long would you be willing to work before starting maternity leave?

You could always take the job then not TTC for two months so even if you got pregnant immediately you'd be working almost all of the maternity cover.

I would definitely take the role. The two issues are separate in my view. If your job is coming to an end then you'll need to find something else regardless.

If you are ttc then maybe it will happen quickly but maybe it won't. Unless you're planning to not work at the end of your fixed term contract then just carry on as business as usual!

No, do it. Presumably if you did get pregnant by the time you were off on leave the original staff member would nearly be back?

The only circumstances I wouldn’t is if it was a small co and paying two lots of mat leave could send them out of business.

You know for certain you can have this job for a certain length of time, you don't know for sure when you'll get pregnant. Take the role.

Thanks everyone.
It's NHS so no chance of just my mat pay sending it out of business!
Just wanted to check I wasn't being selfish!
We'll go for it and see what happens.

Yes I agree, take the role!

Another one to say take the role! Good luck x

Yes take the job.

I mean even if you get pregnant first month of trying the baby won’t appear for 9 months.