Is extreme anxiety bad for baby? Anxiety over work.

[Jg93x]

Hi,

So I have been on furlough since March, my usual job is doing admin and paperwork for a large company, responding to emails etc.

I was taken off furlough on Monday, I was doing my normal job til today when they have decided to move me on to the call centre department. I worked on this department 5 years ago before leaving for my current job (I have social anxiety and was leaving crying every night and ended up on medication hence why I left!)

I haven’t signed any contract or even been given a choice about the department move, and I’ve had no training in 5 years. I already don’t deal well with the busy non stop calls and have had terrible anxiety all day after being screamed at on the phone. My work know this and don’t really care. I had to take a break between calls earlier due to having a panic attack, only to be shouted at by a manager asking why I had been sat for 4 minutes without answering the phone.

I’m 28 weeks pregnant and I am no longer on anxiety medication and I’m really worried about how this will affect the baby. I’m considering taking my maternity early as I really don’t want to be doing a job I’m not trained for every day and being so stressed that it makes me ill.

Do I have to give notice to take my maternity early? I’m not due to leave until the end of July but I want to move it to ASAP if possible.

Does anyone have any advice? I feel pathetic for getting so wound up but I am terrible at speaking to people and the reason I left in the first place was because my anxiety was so bad.

I just don’t want to do any harm to the baby and my work won’t budge :(

You’re not pathetic!
Are you in a union?
Can you speak to your GP?

Can you get the GP to sign you off with anxiety vs taking your annual leave ?

I would speak to your doctor about being signed off - it’s completely reasonable to take time off when you’re so stressed that it’s making you ill, and that way you can preserve your maternity leave for when the baby is here.

Get your GP to sign you off for pregnancy related exhaustion. That's what I did when I was scared to work. For different reasons.

I took time off signed sick leave then started my maternity.

Get signed off, as it cant possibly be good for you to be this anxious. This will give you some time to get in a better place. Ask to see occupational health before you return. They may recommend that you don't work on the phone. Whatever happens, your doctor will likely continue to sign you off until 36 weeks if necessary, then you work will automatically start your maternity leave. While you may need to deal with it and figure out your next career role after you maternity leave, it is along time in the future!

Good luck and don't feel pathetic, lots of people need to take time off during pregnancy and you need to do what is best for the baby and you.

The work situation is horrendous, I'm so sorry you have to go through this. I don't have anything to offer to sort that out but what I can tell you is that I had pre natal anxiety and depression in my first pregnancy. I was absolutely bananas for quite a lot of it, I was properly convinced that either me or the baby were going to die if I didn't provide us with entirely perfect conditions. DS is 10 now, a perfect, gorgeous, healthy wee boy. It will be okay, you 2 will be fine

Hey OP - have a look at the guidelines from the royal college of midwives, who suggest all women in third trimester should shield. You should not need to take your maternity leave early hun