How early did you tell your employer you're pregnant

[bardosya]

I work in an education setting, and was wondering how early did you tell your employer about your pregnancy?

If you kept your pregnancy hidden for a little while, how did you negotiate time off for antenatal appointments?

I had the afternoon off for my scan and then the next day I just showed my boss a pic of the scan and he said 'Who's is that' 😂

I didn’t tell mine until after 20 weeks. I just said I had hospital appointments I needed to attend.
However I don’t work in education.

At 20 weeks, just said I had a dr / hospital appointment. Used strategically placed scarves across growing bump... I thought it was becoming obvious but everyone was shocked when I made the announcement.
Congratulations on your pregnancy!

I told my direct manager very early because I liked and trusted her. Her comment was (when I said it’s early days so…) ‘if you were to be unlucky enough to miscarry I will make your excuses and make sure you have enough time off’. She was the best!

Told mine very early as was off sick for a day and a half with really really bad sickness. Wanted to be honest and let them know and assumed they would be understanding. I regret it a lot as instead of having their support, as I'd hoped, it definitely changed the way I was as treated. Had comments like 'lately your performance has lacked' ie. Since I got pregnant and it was just a really horrible time despite having an amazing appraisal few weeks before the announcement. I didn't tell my colleague until much later but I'm pretty sure most of them already knew. I ended up going off sick before mat leave due to massive anxiety and stress related to the job. So I guess it depends on where you work! My boss was an absolute arse despite constantly saying he was a 'family man and supported employees with families'.

I told mine at like 5 weeks. I work for my family

I told mine verbally quite early. Small company and I show quickly. I lost my second pregnancy at 11 weeks and third at 20 weeks but I needed weeks off with the last one so I'm glad I told them before. It was so obvious anyway.

8 weeks. Hyperemesis meant I had to. I was so ill!

5 weeks - I was really sick and just wanted to be honest about it.

I had IVF in another city so prior to conception! My boss was fully supportive and said they wanted me long term.

You could play the game and claim hospital appointment, or you could just be straightforward and say "look it's very early so I'd appreciate it kept quiet but I need to go for a midwife appointment". Are you worried about being passed over for promotion etc? Or just wanting to do the done thing? Telling won't actually affect your pregnancy outcome, and work should be able to be discreet.

I work nights so time off for appointments isn’t an issue… I told my team leader at around 10 or 11 weeks, and the dept seniors and everyone else at 20ish weeks.

I work in education. I told the head early on (5ish weeks) as I had previous losses. I was being monitored closely so had a few appointments. I also suffer with hyperemisis so spent a lot of time in hospital on drips. I told a friend who worked closely with me (or they guessed due to sickness). Then didn’t tell anyone else until 21 weeks. They were shocked but I was surprised they hadn’t guessed with how sick I had been 🙈

16 weeks

I'm a teacher and needed time off for an early scan. The HR manager refused to let me have the time off because she was concerned about me having been sick recently. I ended up having to tell her to get the time off. However, she then told the head who called me to a meeting. I left this school after maternity leave due to an awful SLT.

I forgot to say that I was 6 weeks.

After my 12 week scan with #1 and #2.

With #3, after two miscarriages that work knew about, I kept it to myself for much longer.

Until one day when a colleague announced that she was 5 months' pregnant, and I burst out, "so am I!!" Our babies were born 2 days apart!

My first, after the dating scan at 12/13 weeks. My second, at about 5 weeks when I threw up in the corridor after running out of a whole team meeting!

Everyone knew by 5-6 weeks because I had to keep running off to throw up 🤦🏻‍♀️ I’m lucky to have a very supportive team around me so they’ve all been fantastic while I’ve struggled through pregnancy!

At about 8 weeks first time as I couldn’t stop puking. Second time I told them as soon as I tested positive. My reasoning was I was likely to be sick again and wanted to ensure I had all the pregnancy rights if I was off ill, and ditto if I miscarried.

Straight away, to get the time off for appointments and for health and safety checks

8 weeks. I'm pregnant again now and will wait and see how I feel and if I need to explain why I'm under the weather a lot

11 weeks or something. New job and sick a lot.

I think it depends on how the pregnancy is going. I had hg and heavy bleeding etc so I was off early with suspected mc but thankfully it wasn't that. So my employer knew from probably about 6 weeks and they had to move me to working from home. I get on very well with her and she's very supportive though. If she wasn't so good I'd probably have held off a bit. If everything is going smoothly for you then I'd just tell them when you feel ready to. I started to show around 12 weeks so couldn't have really hid it past then tbh. I'd also think about things like risk assessments depending on the kids you're working with and your safety around them.

I worked in a school and told my HOD at 5 weeks, mainly as HG was starting
This was useful as I ended up having loads of time off and then had some bleeds

It was formally said at 20 weeks

12 weeks (given how badly I was treated afterwards I should probably have waited until 39.5 weeks 😂)