Pregnant and the office - will you go back?

[Cafeaulait27]

If you have an office job or similar and are working from home at the moment, will you go back if and when restrictions ease hopefully in the summer?

I’m only 7+6 but if all goes well I will be pregnant over summer. I’m currently WFH and have been since September, but it’s really affecting my mental health, I dislike being alone all day (other than my husband who also WFH in another room) I miss being around colleagues and dare I say it the commute.

Just wondered what everyone else’s thoughts were? I know the decision may be made for me by my employer/government and obviously I do want to be safe and the most important thing is my baby of course.

But I do feel kinda lonely and bored of being at home now! Xx

Hiya, I’m 20 weeks pregnant and have been wfh since last November (since lockdown 2.0!). I go into the office occasionally for meetings but apart from that the health and safety officer would prefer it if I stayed at home for the foreseeable. At my work we wear masks in the office all day, so they’re concerned about my oxygen intake and walking up stairs etc.

I’ve got quite a good set up at home and I don’t mind my own company so I can’t say it’s bothered me too much! As I’ll be due in July I can’t imagine I’ll be back in the office full time before then. It will certainly be strange going back after maternity leave though!

No plans from my work to return to the office but if they do open I won’t be going back on the basis that I’ll be at risk as won’t have had the vaccine like everyone else. I think we’ve all more than proved we can work from home just fine so may be very hard for them to argue against it.

However if feel like it will be good for your mental health to return then by all means do, maybe 1-2 days a week so you have a balance. But remember once we’re out of lockdown you’ll be able to have nicer weekends with friends and family and even meet up with others after work during the week. So it may take the edge off being bored at home. It’s just all so intense now stuck in our homes staring at the same walls.

I’ll be rooting for my DH to get back to the office straight away though, they will make a huge difference think we’ve both had enough of eachother 24/7

I'll be in third trimester in June and my manager is happy for me to carry on WFH until I got on maternity leave. I find WFH hard on my mental health too but it I find it easier to do when not in lockdown as I can see my Mum etc. I am high risk anyway due to my health and so I think being in the office everyday is too big a risk

It depends on the situation. I am 22 weeks pregnant and hope to go on mat leave early July. I expect to be working from home until that point.

If baby is due later then you need to weigh up the benefits of going in with the risks. Not all office environments are the same. Ours is fairly safe in my opinion as it is a big building and not many people are in at once plus I know my own hygiene would help keep me safe if I needed to go in but I would still rather be at home to really be on the safe side.

Yeah totally agree with you guys points and reasonings, I guess it depends on what the risk is like in the summer once a lot of people have been vaccinated.

I don’t live near my family and only have a few proper friends to be honest, I am missing the social interaction and also just getting out of these same 4 walls for a change of scene would be nice. But we did used to visit my husbands family a fair bit as they are local so I guess it will be nice to do that again and have a change of scene. Just getting sick of video calls and being in my house! Much as I love our home.

But at the same time, I don’t want to put myself or baby at risk and there is certainly a lot of perks with working from home 😊