what sort of adjustments did your work make for you?

[MissOnomer]

I'm 8 weeks pregnant. I told my line manager at 6 weeks as my job can involve some manual handling and I hoped she would suggest a risk assessment and some minor alterations. I'm an Occupational Therapist and sometimes have to lift wheelchairs and bath lifts into my car - not on a daily basis but probably at least once a week. I'm also 42 and feel completely exhausted. She is well aware of the physicality of the job as she is also an OT. Now I'm 8 weeks and have had some bleeding and took 3 days off sick to get it checked and finally she has said we ought to do a risk assessment. However she has also said if we identify any risks she will have to refer to Occ Health and I might have to be redeployed. The redeployment comment seems a bit OTT! I was thinking along the lines of being encouraged to take more frequent breaks and being allowed to take a therapy assistant if something heavy needs to be lifted. She has also been very snippy about a blood test I need at 10.00 on a working day and asked me to make my appointments to minimise service disruption. I pointed out I had had two GP appointments and a scan on non working days so was doing my best to be accommodating but this couldn't be helped. I am feeling a bit peed off - but if mumsnetters think I am acting like a 'special snowflake' I'll take it on the chin! Am interested to know how other employers accommodate pregnancy, all stories welcome.

I'm a doctor. My boss wasn't really sure about how to do the risk assessment so I wrote it myself - but its a he & I sometimes thing men are nicer than women bosses around pregnancy.

With regard to the tests and appointments - she needs to bog off. My antenatal is always thursday pm - it's been a pain in the arse as I usually have important stuff on thursday pms but I have managed it with a combination of time off, swaps and using up goodwill. You have a legally protected right.

IN terms of the redeployment I think the comment is a bit early and exaggerated but it may be that sending a second person with you may prove difficult for the service (I don't know the details) & they would actually find it easier to put you in a situation where assistance didn't involve a specific second person with you at all times. So it may be reasonable to discuss this - she needs to do an assessment first though.

At the end of the day you need to look after you and baby and you have some protected rights. She may just have been being clumsy

Hi Madasz - thanks for replying. I hope it's just clumsiness on her part. Just for clarity I absolutely don't think I should have a second person with me at all times - that really would be special snowflake territory 😄 I just meant that maybe the therapy assistant could come with me on visits when I have heavy equipment (about once a week), just like if I need a double up for transfers I would take the assistant.

She's probably in a wild panic - see how the assessment goes

Hi, I'm a community health care professional and also frequently need to lift heavy wheelchair scales in/out of the car. In the NHS our policy was a risk assessment to mitigate such risks. I agreed to avoid using the scales and took out an assistant if I needed to use them or if the patient was risky.
With regards to your antenatal appointments, legally they have to let you take them if the fall in work hours. It sounds as if maybe your line manager needs to read the policy and have support from their manager! I hope all goes well for you