What to tell work about morning sickness?

[Meringue33]

Hi first time pg here, just wondering whether you'd tell work about it before 12 week scan? I really don't want people to know but also really struggling with tiredness and sickness. Today I started to feel a cold coming on and was wondering - if I have to take time off should I say why???

[brettgirl2]

You must tell them if you have to take time off. Pregnancy related sickness is not allowed to be counted in your overall sick leave total.

[Meringue33]

Cool thanks guys. Will see how it goes and if I manage. Think the career girl in me is still desperately scared of appearing to be anything other than "giving it 110%" , realise I will need to let go of this soon!

[kalidasa]

I have been off work since week 5 with hyperemesis. (Now 17 weeks so it's been ages!) After I was admitted to hospital for the second time and it became obvious that I wasn't going to be well enough to work for weeks I explained what was going on to my (male) head of department and to one other (female) colleague who helped redistribute what needed doing. I asked them both not to explain what was wrong with me until after the 12 week scan in case I lost the baby. I think this caused huge speculation about the "serious but confidential" condition I was suffering from! But if you just need a few days off here and there I'm sure most people will just accept it.

[Rachel37]

Hi Meringue, firstly congratulations on your pregnancy.

I totally understand what you're going through I had the same problem, I'm now 12 weeks I had really bad morning sickness from week 5 and got progressively worse. I did tell my boss in confidence for the same reasons at PogoBob, for support and also because so busy at work and I couldn't function with the morning sickness. I took a couple of days of sick but also worked from home a few days with the sickness was so bad that I couldn't hold anything down.

I think if you're really struggling and feeling very unwell it's a good idea to tell your boss to see if it is an option to work from home or reduce/change your hours until you get through the difficult 1st trimester period.

[PogoBob]

I had to take a couple of days off (bad morning sickness) and said it was pregnancy related as this isn't counted in terms of monitoring sickness absence

[PogoBob]

I told boss in confidence as I was suffering this time around and want (a) his support and (b) back-up as we were in the middle of a very heavy workload which was dependant on me.

I knew I could trust him though, depends on your boss really.