Time off work with pregnancy illness?

[Rhian82]

I just want some reassurance that I'm not the only one who's off all the time with pregnancy-related ughiness!

My morning sickness didn't really kick in until about 13 weeks, and I had several days off with that over a few weeks, then it seemed to calm down. Then the last few weeks I've been exhausted, and occasionally been unable to work as after 15 hours sleep I've still not been able to get out of bed! Then recently I've started feeling really rotten again - stomach pains, nausea, exhaustion - and missed a few days.

Is it really bad that I'm not making it into work - I mean these are all fairly standard pregnancy things? I know my work can't penalise me for pregnancy stuff (and they're really good and understanding about it all), but I kind of feel like I should be able to deal and struggle through. Just after other people's experiences please!

Can someone point me towards the right place on Northernlurker's link? I couldn't find a section specifically about starting rights. My work says that ML starts automatically within 11 weeks of the due date if you are off for pregnancy-related illness (from when you're first allowed to take it, I see). I've been paranoid about that (now 33+3 and more and more parts of my body failing) and making sure I keep working, as I'm only planning to take the 16 weeks we get full pay as I'm the one with an income. So starting early would mean very little time with baby.

Luckily, the relevant line manger (for whom my duties require me to be somewhere -- other things I can do just as well from bed and no one cares as long as it gets done) is super understanding and has agreed to modify my duties to make it easier for me.

I'm 17 weeks and feel like I've been a lot too with appointments and general sickness. This week I have been off with a bug and been told I can't take Imodium or anything so decided it's best to stay at home. My boss is not happy as I have taken off the whole week. I don't know what to do as I don't want to jeopardise my job