Anxious about the physicality of my job-6 weeks

[rrice]

Hi,

I am 6 weeks pregnant; first pregnancy. I have a very physical full time job as a gardener and the days are 13 hours starting at 4.30, including a 1.5 hour commute through central london. I told my managers that I was pregnant yesterday because I don’t want to be carrying out any work that can put me or the baby at risk of harm. But, there was no talk of a risk assessment or any changes. They’re incredibly emotionally supportive and generally very flexible, but I don’t know what is safe, I’ve not done this before, I’ve not yet seen a doctor. I’m suffering with lower back pain already and am unbelievably exhausted. Should it be up to my employers to know what is safe or should I be taking the lead on this? Feeling pretty anxious to be honest. Appreciate any advice, thank you.

Hi OP,

Firstly congratulations!
Your employer should be arranging to meet with you to complete a risk assessment pretty soon. If they’ve not mentioned this yet then you should ask for it. During the risk assessment it should become apparent what you can and cannot continue doing in terms of work.
I’m a nurse so a very different field of work but had similar concerns as I have long days on my feet, lots of manual handling, lots of stress etc.. The advice from midwives for the first trimester generally seems to be that you can safely keep up a level of activity that you are used to. So for example, if you usually swim 5 times a week that you can continue this (if you feel able) but that they don’t recommend increasing activity levels/introducing new exercises. With that being said, I find the first trimester exhausting. I was signed off sick from work for 3 weeks from 8-11 weeks pregnant, due to nausea and fatigue. I tend to then have a spike in wellbeing and energy levels for the second trimester before pelvic girdle pain sets in later in pregnancy and I struggle again. I had a total of 3 risk assessments in my first pregnancy, the first when my employer found out I was pregnant, the second initiated by my employer as they recognised I had a growing bump and they wanting to make sure I was comfortable and not pushing/lifting anything I shouldn’t be, and the third initiated by me when I began to struggle with pelvic pain.

If you’re part of a union or have access to any occupational health departments they should also be able to advise you.

You need to push for a proper risk assessment for gardening. There are several specific factors that come immediately to mind aside from the hours - the lifting of bags of soil, pots etc, the bending etc and also needing to wear gloves when handling soil because of toxoplasmosis.