Advice please - bonus points if you are a teacher too!

[Rosalind22]

Hello! Just looking for advice on what others would do or are doing - I am a teacher and as we all know covid is spreading like wildfire at the moment and my students are dropping like flies. Work have offered for me to teach online from home as I am now in my third trimester. I don't want to feel like I'm being over dramatic doing this, is this the sensible thing to do? I feel the way the government are reacting in such a chilled manner to this wave of covid that working from home is making me feel like an over reaction.

Is it the right thing to accept and work from
Home? Is that silly? What are others doing at 28 weeks covid wise?

(P.s I think my anxiety comes from wanting to be good at my job, I would hate anyone to think I was letting them down)

Thanks all!

I’m not pg but I am a teacher. If school were offering this to me I’d take it. They will have done a risk assessment and I wouldn’t risk health of you and your baby above letting them down.

I'm not in your situation but I have been the LSA for a teacher who did this and it worked fine. I was the physical presence in the room, setting up the resources etc, supporting them and helping the children physically and the teacher did all the actual teaching, planning, marking etc. I was really worried about it but the children very quickly adapted and it kept the teacher safe in her pregnancy. Good luck with all 🍀😊

Not a teacher but I work in a hospital and I accepted a switch to home working around 32 weeks as a compromise (my choice, I could have gone at 28w) because my patients needed me but I know the risk gets greater as you get more heavily pregnant so this felt like the right balance for me.
Of course the risk of covid is much less if you are vaccinated and boosted but some risk still remains, and you are heavily pregnant for such a small amount of your total career so don't feel bad for protecting yourself and your baby.

If you have been offered the possibility of teaching from home then take it.

I am a teacher and, yes, absolutely yes, take up that offer. The risks to mother and baby are real. Besides the fact that there are risks, you are 70% more likely to catch Covid than non-pregnant colleagues because of changes to your immune system. I've just spent five days suffering from headaches with only paracetamol to help (and it did nothing to help). It's the worst I've felt in a long time.

Just take the time. It's not worth the risk.

Take the offer. Everyone at my school has WFH 3rd trimester.

I would take up this offer if I were you. It’s good that he school are being cautious. The last thing you want is to end up ill and heavily pregnant or during labour. Look after yourself.

I know exactly what you mean. I'm a primary school teach and 25 weeks pregnant. I did just have covid before Christmas though.

So I have been told that I can work from home if I don't feel safe and it's completely my choice. I am finishing for maternity at 32 weeks anyway (feb half term).

I've decided for now that I'm going to stay in work, partly for my mental health. I think it would be a long time to be off work before baby. I have however, gone down to 3 days in school.

I've been told I can change my mind at any time. I think if I hadn't had covid a month ago I'd probably work from home, but hopefully I have a little immunity for a while

As I pregnant teacher I have just been approved to wfh. I felt very guilty asking for it but knew I couldn’t forgive myself if anything did happen to baby. Both midwife and GP were horrified at the thought of me being in a school which made me feel more confident in my decision. Chances are slim of serious illness due to the vaccination but it wasn’t a risk I was willing to take.

A lady I know through school has had to have her baby delivered at 28 weeks because of covid. It’s a very real risk, please wfh in your third trimester!

I'm a pregnant former teacher. Take the offer, and take it without the slightest bit of guilt too! This is what you and your baby need now. That's your priority and it is right that it's their priority too. I'm sure you do what's right by them the rest of the time.

Take the offer. I'm a pregnant teacher but started maternity at Xmas. My school didn't bother risk assessing me until I was 31 weeks and all I was told was to keep windows open. The small things I asked for, like not going to academy meetings with multiple schools, were adapted slightly but I was still expected to attend with social distancing 🙄 I didn't feel safe or protected. Good on your school for taking it seriously.

TAKE IT. Pregnant university TA here, I wasn't offered the same choice. I got covid at 31 weeks, ended up in hospital. Baby is fine and I'm on the mend but it was scary, hard and it has consequences. Protect yourself!

Ex-teacher here. I was incredibly conscientious and managed to get an outstanding (when it mattered back in the day) but ended up burning out entirely. I blamed myself for the burn out and told myself it was because I was weak and should've handled things better until someone asked me if I'd be thinking about my teaching to do lists on my deathbed or have any regrets about what I did or didn't do- I quit teaching soon after.

Covid is an unknown beast. There's no knowing what it will do from one person to the next, especially with the ever increasing list of variants. Follow your schools lead and take their option of WFH. You and your baby matter.

Thank you all for your comments, really helpful, you are all absolutely right, I will let my guilt go and take the offer to work from home x

As someone else said I chose to carry on for my mental health as I had to teach from home for over a year and can’t face doing it again. However they’ve only got me in for two days a week and I’m only in for teaching, all other meetings I’m allowed to do from home.