Work. Early days but heavy lifting

[photographerlady]

Hi ladies. I just found out I'm expecting and I work in events. Every few weeks we head off for an intense week of setting up stages, it's heavy lifting and 18-20 hour days. Next gig I will be 10 weeks. Worried about telling or not telling my boss. Mainly tell him I'm going to let the others unload trucks and avoid the real heavy lifting. If I don't tell him he might notice as we all muck in but if I do tell him it might be odd as technically I'm under 12 weeks and visibly not pregnant. Sounds foolish but what would you do? I'm not going to overdo it and I'm pretty sure he would notice but I guess I'm worked I need to explain myself if I go to him saying I need breaks or make excuses.

Tell him OP, he is responsible for your health and safety and if nothing else the pregnancy hormones will be causing ligaments throughout your body to slacken, making you more prone to injury - and if you hurt yourself it'll be horrible for the rest of your pregnancy!

You can let him know that you're not telling anyone else but that due to the nature of your job you'll need your role modified to avoid the heavy lifting, hence telling him early.

I would tell him asap if you have a physical job. I had to tell my boss at 12 weeks because I puked in a management meeting and they were going to send me home for 48 hours with a sickness bug! I wouldn't do anything that endangers that little one inside you. Your boss will appreciate being given the chance to do a risk assessment early I expect, they wouldn't want responsibility of causing a miscarriage on their conscience, and neither would you if you tough it out and something happens. Good luck :)

Definitely tell him! The main reason people keep quiet in the first 12 weeks is fear of miscarriage and the pain of having to 'un-tell' people if the worst happens. But many people have to tell their bosses early for various reasons, it's perfectly normal! I'm sure he will be discreet and he absolutely should be putting your health and safety first, so will appreciate knowing.

Good luck, and congratulations!

Definitely tell! I'm a carpenter and told my foreman as soon as I knew at 8wks first time round (I'm self-employed this time around). I was very determined to carry on as normal as much as possible for as long as possible, but I still needed some small amendments to my daily tasks. I was immediately stopped from using a selection of chemicals and working at height, although I had no restrictions put on me for lifting. I was allowed to just lift what felt comfortable, and the midwife was ok with this too. Like exercise, if you've been used to doing it previously it's ok to continue if you want.
I eventually hung up my hammer at 37ish wks, but by that point was doing nothing too physical (just the technical stuff with a labourer to help me shift stuff) as like a pp said, my ligaments had loosened and I just couldn't do it.

I told my boss at 6 weeks as I was signed off work with hg. It's a bit odd telling people so early but I think it's much better than them thinking you are slacking or making up reasons why you aren't working. I would have hated my colleagues to be worried.
As someone already said the only reason some people keep quiet until 12 weeks is the risk of mc. To be fair I'd have probably told work if that had happened too as I would have taken some time off.
Congratulations!

A recent study has shown that women who regularly lift over 20kg are more likely to miscarry.

I'm only 5 weeks and trying to work out if I can adapt my job without telling people. I work in marketing and events

I work in marketing and we're off to a big event next week. Usually I'd drive the stuff down there, unload the car, drag all the stuff into the venue and start to set up.

This year, I've 'got a bad back' and shan't be doing any heavy lifting.