Stress at work

[Twinklydreamer22]

This was longer than I expected it would be so please barw with when reading...I'm currently 20 weeks, it's my second pregnancy and I'm struggling with juggling work and home life.

My first pregnancy was a breeze and I sailed through, working up until the day prior to giving birth.

This time round I have a different job which has more responsibility. Recently staffing issues have increased work load and pressure at work and I've found I'm not coping as well as I usually would.

Over the last two weeks I've found myself feeling overwhelmed from juggling work and then coming home and being mum. I feel I use all my energy at work to just get through the day and my work load and by the time I come home I'm absolutley exhausted and I then feel guilty. This has led to me feeling frustrated at work and tearful at times.

I have been having frequent headaches which I think are tension/stress headaches and I'm exhausted all the time despite how much sleep I'm getting. I also had pre-eclampsia in my last pregnancy so I'm now feeling worried about hoe the stress I'm expreincing could be impacting baby.

I have felt exhausted since 1st trimester and pulled myself through by think come 2nd trimester I would have more energy, but I am really struggling and the mum guilt is rotten!

I guess I'm just looking for some reassurance/advice from anyone who is in or has been in this situation. I do feel its taking its toll on me ans my family have agreed and suggested I go off work sick in the short term and make contact woth GP/midwife this week. I feel so conflicted as I know health of myself and my baby comes first. Help 😩😅

What was the outcome of your risk assessment

Despite having questioned this, I still haven't had a risk assessment carried out...

You should ideally have one - maybe push it for with management
I get reviewed every trimester - earlier if anything changes at work

Your work sounds very supportive which is lovely!

I have mentioned a risk assessment on a couple of occasions and it's not been addressed despite having told work very early on that I was pregnant due to the role I do 😅

Definitely go to see your GP. When I was feeling similar to you, I saw my GP (also for sickness) and my blood pressure was through the roof. I was signed off for a fortnight and when I returned to work I had my risk assessment updated, and was referred for an occupational health assessment. As part of that, I have to check my blood pressure 3 times a day and have been given steps to take if it gets too high (I had to get myself a bp monitor to do this). It’s actually made me feel loads better, because even when things have been stressful at work, my blood pressure hasn’t been too high, so I know I’m not significantly at risk.