I'm 18 weeks but my previous job reacted so badly when they found out I was pregnant that I had to kiss goodbye to my maternity pay and quit, (they forced me to work flat out 80+hrs over 6 days, sometimes 8 days straight and would give me only one day off in-between so that it instead of it being monday-friday, I would work tuesday to sunday and have monday as my day off. It was gruelling, I'd eat maybe one meal a day because I was throwing up in the evenings and mornings due to how tired and dizzy I felt from being on my feet all day.
I would literally work 8hrs straight no break, then get 1hr or 2hrs break and then boom back to work til close. I'd go to work at 10am and get home for midnight-1am. it was horrible, I asked my work to lower my hrs to my contracted hrs of 45hrs per week because I was pregnant and struggling to cope with the workload/lack of regular breaks to sit down and rest.
They said no and claimed I had an attitude problem, they also said in internal communications that they wouldn't allow some pregnant girl "dictate" her hrs and they would raise them as they saw fit, and if I continued to be "difficult" I would be "dealt with". So I got fed up with crying over it and taking in doctors notes that work just ignored - so I left, gave them more than my necessary notice, and left.
My new job is a dream - I love my colleagues, my bosses, my work, my responsibilities; all of it is like a welcomed vacation. But I'm 18 weeks pregnant now and when I applied I didn't tell them I was pregnant as I'd already been rejected from tonnes of other jobs for that reason (oh they all said it was for a different reason, but I knew they didn't want the hassle), and being that my old work reacted by punishing me everyday in various ways which were literally causing me so much stress that I was petrified to be attached to my baby because I was scared I would lose the baby (the doctors were telling me if I didn't reduce stress levels, I was at a high risk of a miscarriage - even this my work did not accept as a valid reason for less hrs) and the 40+ jobs I applied for while stating I was pregnant also rejected me without a pause - I was so scared of the consequences of not changing jobs that I didn't disclose it at interview and legally I am allowed to do this.
But I've been in the job about 2 weeks and I don't know how to tell them about it now, I care about my colleagues and my boss, I don't want to quit my job or stop working, I'd happily continue right up til I drop. But I know it's a matter of time til they figure it out and I have to come clean eventually, I'm just so scared that I'll end up jobless and I won't be able to afford my baby.
I'm honestly very scared, I know some people would wonder why I'm in a mess like this, but to be brutally honest, my family live 250 miles away, I haven't seen them in 2 years due to covid. My mum was diagnosed with cervical cancer in september and I got ill in october - had to go on antibiotics but was not told they could make my birth control ineffective and boom pregnant.
The news was welcomed by my mum who was so happy she said it was a relief for her, because not only was I told I would struggle to ever get pregnant due to a hostile womb and cysts, but my mum said it made her feel fearless about her own diagnosis as it was "something wonderful to look forward to".
I need advice, I don't need hindsight - everyone's hindsight is 20/20, in hindsight I obviously wouldn't have chosen this situation for my baby.
But considering it's the one I'm in, I would appreciate some advice for a pregnant girl who is so used to bad employers, she's terrified that her new ones will react the same way.