Sickness at work

[Shahhhh]

Hi friends!

Not sure if there is anything I can do and I'm sure it's just going to be the case of getting up, grinning and baring with it but...

For some backstory, I had a miscarriage in April which meant I was off work for eight weeks as it was complicated. Moving forward to today, I'm now seven weeks pregnant with a new pregnancy, and everything seems to be gone fine, I'm on progesterone and we are having regular scans with the early pregnancy unit, but at the moment things are looking good.

The only thing is, I am absolutely ill. I'm so tired, feel sick all of the time, have to literally force myself to eat because I know I have to, but I feel absolutely dreadful. my job requires a lot of concentration. I work for a bank in releasing large payments so I have to be on the ball and at the moment I'm really really struggling.

At the end of my last sickness, I stopped receiving full pay. So I know if I have any sickness this time, it doesn't affect my triggers as it's pregnancy related however it means I will be about £1000 down on my wage. My partner works full-time in the same company, that's where we met! So we are both on a decent wage, however I feel really bad for being off on the sick and not carrying my weight in terms of bills and stuff. is there absolutely anything I can do in terms of sick pay, anything I can apply for? Work are really understanding and I don't think the triggers will be an issue, but obviously we will take a hit financially if I'm off, and I really don't think pushing through is going to be an option some days as I feel so awful at seven weeks, I can only imagine my symptoms are going to get worse!

The placenta is starting to form around now and will start taking over. In most pregnancies this is when the nausea will start to ease. I had nausea until about 20 weeks but it did become a bit more predictable (certain smells and certain times of the day) it made it easier to get on with the day. Hopefully you’ll start to feel a bit better soon and be able to manage better so you don’t need to take any sick leave.

I thought that each pregnancy was self-contained, so reaching the end of your sick leave in April won’t affect this pregnancy related sickness as it’s a separate event. Pregnancy related sickness doesn’t count in the same way as regular sickness. I would check with pregnant then screwed to see if they have something though as I’m not sure.

however I feel really bad for being off on the sick and not carrying my weight in terms of bills and stuff.
You are having a baby. You won’t be able to carry your weight in terms of bills and stuff because your earning is going to go down whilst on maternity leave. You will also naturally be picking things up for yourself but pregnancy related during this time and for the baby as you’re out and about with them on maternity leave. You will notice quite easily that more or your money is going onto baby things. This is a perfect opportunity to look at your arrangement and for your partner to recognise that you will not be able to contribute the same financially. Even if your work offers a full year paid maternity leave, you will have less income by purchasing baby related things. Your contribution at the minute is the “stuff” in that you are growing your child. You also need to lose the guilt around this because your partner couldn’t have this baby without you.