Sick leave whilst pregnant

[Doodles9]

So I’m currently 13 weeks with my second pregnancy. I’ve suffered with horrendous sickness and nausea. I have been reviewed by my GP etc, and luckily not needed any trips to hospital as I am keeping most of my meals down.

Since 12 weeks the sickness has reduced thankfully just sick twice a day however the nausea has remained. I was off work for 4 weeks and returned at the end of my sick note last Thursday, I also thought I was improving. I do feel awful for the time I’ve had off as I know my coworkers will have had to cover my workload. On my return before even getting to my desk “thank god you’re back, can I start putting stuff in your diary”, which I understand I’m there to work. But in the same breath I was practically incapacitated a few days earlier.

Anyway, this weekend I feel as though I’m going backwards nausea has ramped up and the day long headaches have made an appearance to top it off. I’m feeling rotten and know I’ve gone back to work too soon. The thought of calling in sick again and causing issues with rearranging my diary, is just making me want to go in. If I go off again I go to half pay now, we’d make do but it is not ideal. I know I should just go off but I feel so conflicted. What would you do?

If you are not well and can afford it go off sick.

Alternative is to request a temporary reduction in your hours.

There is no job worth compromising your health and your baby for.

Under the circs I might travel into work, show my face looking like death and make an exit once it's clear I'm not malingering.

I did find that tiredness made nausea much worse. Eating through it (toast and peanut butter) cured it but I had to graze constantly. Does not do wonders for the size of your backside but did stop me vomming. Everyone has their own cure though. If it's hypermedia you just need to get signed off so they can sort cover properly. Not knowing if you are coming or going is what will cause the most problems.

I take it you can't work from home or be found a special project for a bit?

I'd be going back to the gp and seeing if there are different anti sickness and nausea meds they can try you on. Regardless of whether or not you're working it's horrible to feel so sick.

I was signed off sick for 6/7 weeks this time round. Work being awful about it even in a part time role but health comes first. My freelance clients were more understanding than a big company - go figure! It was HG with the constant nausea,extreme tiredness,heart burn,migraines / headaches & couldnt get out of bed. Horrible horrible time. Do what you need to do as rest is the only thing that will help you potentially. Anti sickness meds didn’t really help me tried a couple different ones - took the edge off some days though. It’s work trying different meds through GP but ultimately listen to your body & mind.

I had a similar situation. I was off for a couple of weeks and thought I was well enough to go back but a couple of weeks later I relapsed really badly. I ended up being off for most of my first trimester.

I didn’t feel particularly supported the first bout of absence, I definitely felt like I was being treated as a hinderance more than anything. However, after having a good chat to my boss about what hyperemisis is the whole vibe changed and I’ve been nothing but supported. I certainly wasn’t encouraged to go off again but I felt like everyone understood and they just wanted me and baby to be healthy.

If you need to be off you need to be off.