How much time off work after early MC?

[DangerMousey]

Hello, can anyone give me some advice? I had an early MC over this weekend (5 and a half weeks). Bleeding and pains started on Sat afternoon, early pg unit confirmed the miscarriage this morning.

It was my first pg and a happy surprise so still trying to get my head round the last 10 days in which I have been terrified about becoming a mum, started to get used to the idea, and then found out it's not happening any more

I have pains like moderately bad period pains and am bleeding like a normal period, and am not sure how much time I need to take off work?

Stupidly, cos I hadn't told anyone at work I was pregnant I lied when I called in sick this morning and said I had a tummy bug (I implied norovirus) to buy myself a couple of days off if I need them. But I think I can only self certificate for 3 days and then would need a doctor's note.

So I guess I have two questions: if this just feels like a period and I can medicate with paracetamol/ibuprofen, do I need to take more than 1-2 days off work?

And if I decide I do need the whole week off, can I possibly ask my GP to write me a note which doesn't specify exactly what medical condition I am suffering with???

Am nervous about boss finding out I am pg - am scared that her attitude towards me at work will change if she knows we are trying :-/ So would prefer to keep this to myself...

Please let me know what you think. xx

Difficult to say.
For me i took a weekend off for one of my mcs, and 6 weeks with another. I generally had about 2-3 weeks off though.
I hope that you are able to control your pain with brufen/paracetamol, but its earlyd ays and pain & bleeding may worsen over the next day or two (or you may be lucky and it may continue as it is).

Give it the rest of this week definitely and just take each hour as it comes tbh.

Also, any pregnancy related illness is not counted into sick time in my area of work, so i always got a sick note for the reason i was off. Just because i would have been taken down the capability route had i put other reasons down.

Sorry this has happened to you x

So sorry about your loss.

I had a miscarriage a couple of weeks ago which started at the weekend. Because I really didn't want to alert my employer to the fact that I am trying to get pregnant (it's really not a very progressive place) I didn't feel I could take time off at all. I have quite a high profile job in that particular industry where it causes problems to take time off.

This was not a good idea. I felt incredibly angry and upset that even as I was bleeding from this awful thing (it lasted about 8 days) happening to me, I couldn't take time off to deal with it.

If it ever happens again, I'd take off at least a few days and blame tummy trouble. If I had to go to the doctor and lie about having an upset stomach to make everything ok at work, I'd do that. I think honesty is definitely the best policy in general but I wouldn't want to let my employer know unless it was at a later date when I needed longer off.

So in other words danger I'd wait a couple of days and then see how you feel. Sorry again for your loss.

So sorry to hear about your loss :(

I had a MC at a similar stage and stupidly took one day off and went to work the next day. I thought it would help which it did temporarily until the next week when I collapsed in a heap of emotional mess. Even if you feel better physically just take a few days to get over the emotional aspect as I found that far worse.
Wishing you a happy and healthy pregnancy if that is what you want, soon.

Thanks everyone for your helpful advice. I took a brave pill past night and called my boss and told her the truth - i just decided that I was feeling confused and upset enough without having to weave a big web of lies (tempting though it was!).

Boss turned out to be great - she's a lady in her late 50s and when I called her at home she revealed that she too had suffered an early MC shortly after getting married 25 years ago. She was v understanding and told me to take some time to recover. She even offered that I could work from home at the end of this week if i want, to ease myself back into things (and to avoid the 1 hr commute I have into central London).

So i am deffo going to just try to chill out at home until Thursday and see how I feel from there. Physically still feel fine but woke up this morning and had a little cry for the loss of our 'honeymoon baby' so i think not being at work is probably for the best :(

So happy your boss was so supportive danger and hope you feel less sad soon.