Pregnant after being in a job for 9 months

[ShakingThatPeach]

I’m 32 and desperate to get pregnant. I made a poor career move last year that’s now put me in a difficult situation.

In 2023 I thought I’d found a dream job in a dream sector but it very quickly became apparent the environment was toxic and my manager wasn’t competent. I left the role after only 9 months and landed a slightly lower paid role with less responsibility in an organisation I really love.

I really panicked last year when I realised I needed to find a new job and that I’d be ttc while new to a role and could potentially get pregnant less than 9 months into the job.

My new job has enhanced maternity has the same criteria as statutory maternity pay (for at least 26 weeks continuing into the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth) but I didn’t know this until I started.

I really like the people I work with and worry that if I do get pregnant they’ll just think I just got the job for the maternity package and was always planning to do the job for a bit and then have a baby! My ideal would have been to have been in a role at least two years before having a baby but my plans just didn’t work out that way.

If you were a colleague, manager or exec member and an employee did this, would you think badly of them? Or is this more normal than I think?

Basically: am I being unreasonable to get pregnant 9 months into a job?

I have friends who have job hunted while pregnant so no I do not think it’s
unreasonable. It also would not occur to me that anybody had researched a company’s maternity leave policy and made a job decision based on that tbh.

Continue with your plan to conceive.

The key question is would you want to return?

Agreed

It's a normal and reasonable thing to do to make career moves to an organization with better terms. The policy kicks in after a certain point in your employment. You are past this point. If they wanted for employees to have been in the company for longer, they would have changed their policy.
Nobody would question you if you were a man taking on a job which had better benefits package, would they? So why do you feel like you have to apologize for your pregnancy?

Also it's really naieve to think that people don't change job in order to avail of the perks of that job be that maternity leave, holidays or just pay.

I found out I was pregnant 2 weeks after being in a new job, I also worked with a girl who hid that she was pregnant then on her first day disclosed she was 5 months pregnant, I say go for it