Starting a new job pregnant

[mirna91]

So I resigned from my last job and signed a new contract with a company to start next week. Over Xmas holidays I found out I was pregnant (after 3 years of infertility). Bittersweet news as I don't know how to break it to this company I'm starting with. Shall I go in honest and let them know how far I am etc? Or wait till after 3 months and tell them then? I'm so confused but also so nervous about letting them down. Any advice welcome. Has anyone else gone through this and what did the company say? I'm not bothered about the mat pay fyi

Congratulations!! I wouldn’t let work know until after your first scan at around 12 weeks. You don’t legally need to let them know until much later than that (I think it’s 20 something weeks) but if you’re comfortable letting them know earlier than that it will certainly help them with planning for your mat leave. I would be factual when telling them to help set the tone for how your pregnancy news should be treated. I certainly wouldn’t be falling over myself apologising or acting like you feel you’ve done something wrong.

Assuming you stay with the company some years, maternity leave is a fairly short period of time in the grand scheme of things. You sadly know better than a lot of people that pregnancy doesn’t always happen easily for women and you can’t put your career on hold based on the fact that you might get pregnant.

Once you’ve told your line manager verbally I would definitely follow up with an email to confirm it. That way if there’s any dodgy behaviour from them you have written proof that they knew about your pregnancy.

Congratulations!

I found out I was pregnant while working my notice period in my last job, and was about 8/9 weeks pregnant when I started my current job. I WFH 99% of the time but decided to tell my boss when I first met him in person when I was about 13 weeks pregnant.

I agree wait until you're past 12 weeks before you tell work. I felt really bad and was very apologetic when I told my boss (although I know I shouldn't have been!) but my boss was so, so nice about it, congratulated me, told me not to apologise, it's just part of life etc. As the last poster said you don't need to tell them until much later but I wanted to be honest and helpful and give them as much time as possible to find maternity cover.

Try not to worry, they have to be supportive and I'm sure they'll understand and be happy for you.

Thank you both thats really helpful to know.xx

I’m going through the same thing, did you take a reduced mat Leave after this?

I'm was/am in the exact same boat. I resigned from a company I worked at for 10 years for a new opportunity and found out in the last month of my notice period that I was pregnant. I also have struggled with fertility issues.

I got pressure from a lot of people to tell my new employer immediately to be "honest". I didn't and I waited until I was 14 weeks. They were hugely supportive and so kind.

I am very glad I waited until after 12 weeks. I'd had a miscarriage before and I knew I couldn't deal with talking about it if that had happened. I also needed to feel more settled into pregnancy. However, I also was hiding how unwell I felt in my first trimester (which sucked!) so you do whatever you feel is right for you. Any good employer will support you, if they don't you shouldn't work there anyway so see it as a blessing if they show their true colours.