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Pregnancy

Talk about every stage of pregnancy, from early symptoms to preparing for birth.

Support worker work whilst pregnant

4 replies

Fifififififififidw · 06/08/2023 18:15

Hi,
I woke as a support worker in a residential home for adults with profound learning disabilities and physical disabilities. The residents are mostly non verbal but do communicate through their own way, shouts, cries, banging rattles etc. there is also a lot of physical persons care (hoists, assisted walking) and a hell of a lot of cleaning, house hold tasks, cooking and laundry. I have alway enjoyed the challenges that come with the job and the need for human compassion and empathy it involves but I am now 5months pregnant and am worried about the emotional toll it’s putting on me (can be very hard with very I’ll clients and clients who have quite challenging behaviour and are hard to comfort when very upset) my main concerns at the moment are that I’m worried my baby will hear the cries and shouts of the clients and it will be distressing for the baby as although they are all quite “happy” in their worlds they all are very vocal a lot of the time and t can be audibly quite distressing. My colleagues are kind and helpful but due to alway being understaffed it’s hard to alway accommodate my condition. With my hormones all over the place am getting home and just crying a lot due to the nature of the job. I have been doing this for 12 years and it’s all I do really. Does anyone know any help lines I can contact? I have regularly used cbt and it gets me through day to day but could really do with some talking therapy, a therapy group or just some advice on how to deal with this all.
thank you so much anyone who reads this.

Fi

East Sussex

OP posts:
CoachBeardsJane · 06/08/2023 18:24

I wouldn't worry about the noise affecting your unborn baby, that's not a thing. However maybe ask if you can do lighter duties if you're struggling with the physical aspects of your job.

That will sound better than 'the noises my service users make might upset my unborn baby'

FiW · 04/09/2023 08:58

Hi CoachBeardsJane,

Thank you for your response. I apologise if my wording didn't meet the the professional language standard, i just thought this was a safe space to ask for advice, I am aware that that would seem a little unprofessional in the industry terms but i had let my gramatical guard down i guess due to being emotionally a little distressed and am also quite dyslexic so please bare with me.

I have asked for lighter duties and my risk assessment has only just been completed (now six months pregnant), but due to lack of fully trained staff, pressures with internal administrative issues, I am unable to just perform these tasks due to a duty of care and safety for the other clients. If anyone had worked in the industry for a non profit NHS institution im sure they would understand.

I realise now that this is an internal issue and one i should not ask for advice on here.

I have now gone to a union and they are helping me with my issue but again thank you for answering and correcting my obviously unprofessional grammar!

Scirocco · 04/09/2023 09:05

Hi, congratulations on your pregnancy. Of course you can ask for advice about anything on here. I don't think the previous poster was trying to criticise you, just to suggest wording that might be helpful to use in discussions?

I've worked as a support worker and work in healthcare now, and it's a good idea to be in a union and to make your workplace aware promptly so they can make work adjustments for you and prepare for your mat leave - have you shown them your MAT1B form yet?

2ndchanceluckygirl · 04/09/2023 23:52

You have put your post just fine, don't worry about your language, nothing wrong with it, you clearly are empathetic and enjoy your job but you are pregnant and understandably deserve for your workplace to make reasonable adjustments. You should feel comfortable to message on here ❤️ I'm a mental health nurse, our workplaces can be unpredictable even when our service users are know to us. You may feel dedicated to help and support but baby and you come first right now, not your workplace, or the whole industries, staffing issues. I'm glad you got your union involved and I think you should press for a change in role and regardless, post on here any time you want. I'm following 🤗

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