Pregnant doctors/nurses/midwives are you working clinically?

[Catslife123]

Shamelessly using AIBU for traffic, sorry.

I’m 17 weeks pregnant and working non-clinically. All my other colleagues who are pregnant are still working clinically and have been bullied/peer pressured into this by management and lots of reassurance that there is no risk.

I’m considering going back to clinical work because I know people will be bad-mouthing my choice to not be clinical and it seems like everything is calming down now. Just wondering what other trusts are doing with their pregnant staff in patient-facing roles?

For what it’s worth, by job involves lots of patient contact for prolonged periods of time and often in droplet-producing situations.

I'm a midwife and no one in our trust who is pregnant is working clinically.

Please don't feel bullied into doing so if you feel it is unsafe.

Thank you @Monr0e. Our trust guidelines are very clear that pregnant staff shouldn’t be patient-facing but middle management have found loopholes and ‘reassurances’.

I’m a midwife and I worked in non-patient facing role during first trimester, but chose to come back clinical now. Will be going off at 28weeks as per RCOG guidance.
My trust/department has been very supportive and some pregnant staff have been off entirely, some in non-clinical roles and some just working as normal, following individual risk assessments, guided mainly by what we want to do!
We have plenty PPE and I feel pretty well protected. Didn’t like the thought of not working for basically a year and 9months (by the time may leave done).

What is your role and grade?

Do you feel able to assert yourself?

As a junior I'd have tried to keep the peace. Now I'm older and more cynical I don't.

I’m 31w and not working clinically

I’m band 6 midwife @NamechangeOnceMore. I do think I’m feeling worse because I’m not senior and think that people will just be saying I’m overreacting or skiving. I’m also apprehensive about having so long out of practice, like you @MysteriousSheep. I had to really fight to be non-clinical when the peak was happening, and I think that’s fostered some mistrust in management and that’s mainly why I’m hesitant about returning.

Thanks for the responses, really helps to know what others are doing.

Some of our pregnant midwives went non clinical until 12 weeks. Some stayed working and think the plan is they work until 28 weeks

@Catslife123 anyone bitching or complaining about other people’s decisions and situations is ridiculous and not worth paying any mind to. Everyone has their own individual risk assessments and this should include not only your clinical situation but also what you feelings and preferences are.
Also, the guidance issued by RCOG/RCM says any pregnant healthcare workers, whatever their gestation, should be supported to work in non patient facing role of this is what they feel more comfortable with as there is still so little known about covid and pregnancy.
It is hard to know what to do, but I am currently feeling very happy with my decision to go back clinical as I was missing it and I feel the risk at the moment is fairly negligible to me/my pregnancy. It is probably helped though by the fact that I know if I wanted to do something else management will be supportive of that too.
Best of luck coming to a decision. Only you can decide really. But seriously, don’t worry about what other people might say or think.

One of my colleagues is pregnant and been moved from her ward to mine as hers was taking suspected covid. Although I think there has only been about 4 kids actually test positive with it. So it's not been a huge issue.

Our pregnant staff are working non-clinically but they are coming into the ward every day to do admin work. They will then will shield at home when they hit 28 weeks.

We've gone from all COVID to no COVID now so that's probably partly why they are happy with their current roles.

I am only 6 weeks pregnant but work as a bank nurse (patient facing) I’m finding it very difficult to make a decision as to whether to work or not. Because I am only bank, I feel like I don’t really have an option but to work or I don’t earn any money. I
Also worried about future mat pay. I wondered if waiting until I’m 12 weeks might be better? I also had a miscarriage at 9 weeks in March so that has added to my anxiety. I might be jumping the gun a bit as I’m not that far along but any advice would be appreciated

@chickpea123 my maternity pay (NHS) is calculated over eight weeks over months 4&5 check what you’re entitled to.
Have you got any low risk wards you can work on?

I’m now 29 weeks pregnant and haven’t worked clinically since the start of March. I’m in a specialist clinical role that involves our team going to all wards / departments - even if I stayed in the office, other team members would be coming back after being exposed to CV. They’ve all had the antibody test now and all of them have had it!

Our trust called a meeting and sent everyone who was potentially ‘higher risk’ home! That was before official RCOG guidance was released, but my manager was supportive (for once) when it came out & kept me working from home (although realistically v little I can do now, was doing some emergency policies / planning at the start).

I think I will start my mat leave soon as feeling a bit guilty I’m getting paid to be at home.

@boomclaps I can try to ask the bank if the ward is low risk, by sometimes I arrive and there is a ?covid patient or even a confirmed one. They are u able to say beforehand if the ward is low risk really. My thinking was if I waited until I am 12 weeks it might not be as risky. Just praying we don’t have a second wave!

I'm also bank as a hca and I had a risk assessment earlier this week, they've basically told me I can carry on as theres no risk, I can even work o covid wards and I can work for as long as I want, nothing labout the 28 weeks rule of staying home. I'm not due til december so Im guessing the guidelines will probably change alot before then anyway. they just said as long as I'm wearing the correct ppe as needed and adhere to manual handling policy I dont need to change anything

Thanks @charlottejade89 it’s scary though isn’t it but I guess the world just doesn’t know enough about the risks and certainly where I work there are less covid patients. Have you managed to avoid covid wards/patients or are you still looking after them?

@chickpea123 I have managed to avoid working on covid wards lately and I have had abit of time off with pregnancy related illness. It's hard to tell what the wards are sometimes because they keep changing round. Hopefully surgical wards will be opening back up soon so there will be more choice for places to go