Workplace risk before revealing pregnancy?

[anonymousbanana]

I am currently 6 weeks pregnant with my first. Very much planned and we are very happy!

However I am getting very anxious about when I should tell my boss at work and would love to hear some thoughts from ladies who have been through this.

Some background on my job: it is mainly office based but does occasionally (a few times a week) involve going out onto the workshop around machinery. I don’t THINK any of the machinery is dangerous to be around when pregnant (obviously I will not be operating any) but I am not completely sure as I don’t know how exactly they work. I know one machine is definitely not safe (it has a warning sticker with a pregnant lady on it!) but that one isn’t in use. I know that when I tell work about my pregnancy I would find this information out through risk assessment and they would tell me what I can and cannot do.

Also, without going into exactly what my job is, I could potentially be responsible for investigating chemical spills if they occur – basically anything that is hazardous to the environment I would need to look at. The chances of this happening before I would want to reveal my pregnancy are small but not impossible. Obviously if it is hazardous to the environment chances are I don’t want to be going anywhere near it when pregnant.

The company is actually really flexible when it comes to medical appointments or working from home etc, so while it is unlikely to pose a problem when I need time off for midwife appointments and scans etc, I still feel incredible cheeky asking for it when I can’t really explain what it is for. Also, I am incredibly exhausted and feeling terrible at the moment so I’m really struggling to get through the day. I feel like if morning sickness starts soon then I might need time off or days working from home to be able to cope.

Since we found out the pregnancy a couple of weeks ago, we’ve heard about a few family members who have had early losses recently and it’s very difficult not to feel anxious. Ideally we don’t want to tell ANYBODY before the 12 week scan (at the earliest), but I can’t decide if a quiet word with my boss before this point would make life a lot easier?

I’m fairly confident that it wouldn’t affect my work or career negatively and my boss would be happy to make allowances for me. But at the same time, it’s just so so early and I know that anything can happen, and I really don’t feel great about telling people yet.

I’m leaning towards leaving it for as long as possible, but then if anything does occur which could affect the pregnancy then use that as the time to tell my boss. But then I still worry that I am overlooking risks that work could advise me on!

What are your opinions on this?

I told my boss really early on. I work with radiation, and although I was generally happy that there's nothing I routinely do that would represent a risk to the baby, there's one area of the hospital I could have been asked to go to that isn't safe for pregnant women. I think best to let your boss know and get the risk assessment and any necessary precautions in place.

I would normally lean towards waiting but with the chemical risk in your job I would just tell them.

Personally, I would tell them. Not worth the risk.

I would tell them. I totally understand why you don’t want to (we told not a soul til after the 12wk scan) but when there are tangible risks in your workplace I think you have to. Good luck.

Regarding the risk of early loss, if it does happen you may end up having or wanting to tell work anyway. Having my boss on side really helped me.

I told my boss at work early on because of some of the risks I could face. She was great and kept my secret until I told everyone. We also decided steps I would take to mitigate the risks. If I had of had an early loss she would have been supportive with any time off I needed so that was reassuring too.

I'm only 5 weeks gone and I plan on telling my boss in the very near future. Mainly because of the tiredness that I'm really struggling with, I dont want him to think I'm sick or pulling a fast one.

I think in your case OP you're probably legally obliged to tell them in case anything happened.

Thank you all so much for your responses, you've really given me a lot to think about.

It's a really good point that I might need support from work even if the worst did happen with the pregnancy, I hadn't really thought about it that way.

I think I will need to have a chat with DH tonight about possibly telling my boss then. He isn't keen on us telling anyone either, but I know he doesn't want any risk to the baby.

I told my boss early because of various workplace risks. He knew I didn't want to tell anyone else yet. He has been brilliant in covering for me and doing tasks that I shouldn't be doing without drawing to other people's attention.
I was so worried about telling him as I know me being off is going to be a complete headache for him as we're so short staffed but I'm really glad I did as he has been nothing but supportive

Re: early loss.

With ds it looked like I was going to lose him at one point and I told my boss then as I needed to ensure that work could be handed over if things did go wrong and because I didn’t want to have to lie about why I was missing work.

I work in a very different job but one which could pose a risk due to the clients we work with. I told my boss straight away as I wanted my safety to be prioritised and it was kept very quiet.

Tell you line manager as they will most likely be the one carrying out the risk assessments.
With the risk involved in your job, all personal opinions aside, it would be incredibly irresponsible to leave it any longer (I speak from personal experience, I work near machinery and there are rooms I am most definitely banned from due to fumes that may be very damaging to baby)

You can always tell said manager to keep it quiet and not tell anyone and just carry the risk assessment out as normal and then let the rest of your colleagues know when you wish.x