Pregnant teacher - how to survive?

[Squarebear1973]

I'm a secondary chemistry teacher, so lucky to be on holiday at the moment. Dreading going back in September.
Currently 18+3 and still getting tired, although iron all fine.
Job means that no matter how hard you try, you ARE on your feet all day & can't abandon the kids for a wee due to H&S, and I can't have a kip during the day & I can't alter my working hours like the books / mags tell you to. Had 4 mc's already son don't want to risk but also don't want to be a pregnant wimp
Anyone got any advise? Been there & survived?

Im secondary teacher 28wks pg with 2nd, my top tips for coping are:

tell everyone you are pregnant asap

get the students to give stuff out/ collect stuff, lift stuff as much as possible

loo trip strategy: limit the amount you drink before double lessons, drink loads just before lunch break and in the evenings

eat every hour (everyone now used to me rummaging around in my food bag...)

sit down during break and lunch

with older students, call them up to your desk for 1:1s rather than going to them

lie down with legs raised when you get home for half an hour

be prepared to laugh at yourself as you drop things, bump into things, accidently throw things, and generally make an a--s of yourself due to pregnancy clumsiness

Hi everybody,

I would really like some advice. I am 23 week pregnant (1st child)and I am a MFL teacher. I have been experiencing some really bad abdominal cramps for a while now but it was so bad last Monday that my husband had to come and pick me up from work and we went to A and E. In the end, I have been told that it was muscular and it will become worse.

I am off work for a week but I am dreading going back to work. My school is in special measures and I have to climb about 100 stairs to get to my classroom.

Has anybody been having these cramps before? If so, how did you cope with them?
Thank you for your help

xx

I'm a secondary Food Tech teacher, was due on the 9th Sept (and still waiting!), so I haven't gone back to work after the hols, started my maternity on the 1st Sept. I agree with others on here, letting the pupils know was a huge help, as the majority started to try and help me out with setting up/clean downs etc, and they became more independant. Trying to teach sitting down as much as you can is really hard in the practical lessons, but it will really save your feet! Do you have technicians which could help support you more? Our two were fantastic, helping me out as much as they could.

Good luck, just don't try and do too much!

I'm 10 weeks pregnant too and work as a teacher for students with Profound & multiple learning difficulties. My main problem is the vast amount of moving & handling, lifting & hoisting we do, along with a student with potential violent episodes. My TAs are fab but the only one not in their 60s has a heart condition - and I don't want to feel I'm taking the p*.

And I'm so tired when I get home - it's an hour by train - that my poor DH bears the brunt of my tears & utter lack of energy.

Not sure when to work till either....half term or Easter?

I want to jump on the pregnant teacher band wagon!! I'm 32 weeks, secondary teacher and am finding work really bloody hard. Head teacher sent me home early today because she could see I was on the edge!! My school day starts bloody early and lack of any kind of quality sleep is killing me. However, my head has really supported me and allows me to work on a flexible timetable, e.g when I'm not teaching I can go home and my classes are progressively being taken off me by people who will be doing my mat cover. Your place of employment has to make reasonable changes to your working day in order to accommodate your pregnancy. When I got sent home today I cried before I drove my tired ass home because I feel like a should be able to manage better and I hate feeling like I can't do my job properly.

You are so lucky to not have to teach a full timetable Roz. I'm 31 weeks and driving myself totally into the ground trying to cope. I took today off because I literally could not imagine coping with my classes today. I have all bottom sets who will have supply when I go, so I feel very guilty for not being there. I asked my HoD for some reductions in my teaching committment, and she said she couldn't do anything. I saw the midwife today and will be getting a FIT note from the doctor on Monday saying that I can't work unless my timetable is reduced. Sometimes you have to put yourself first, and if my school aren't willing to compromise it is them who will lose out in the end.

I think it's terrible that your hod is being so unhelpful. My hod is very supportive and encouraged me to meet with the head to see what could be done. I honestly can't imagine teaching a full t.t now, I know I couldnt do it.

Just wanted to say I'm glad you are getting things sorted lizzymaths

Ooh! Just read some of the thread. I'm 24 weeks pregnant - due 1st January with DC1. I teach Year 1 and find it easier sitting on a child's chair than an adult's chair at the table (My group table is horseshoe shaped). Luckily I have a full time TA who allows me to use the toilet (across the corridor) whenever I want and a lovely HT who loves my bump!

On another matter, I had heard that even though you are on maternity, you are still entitled to annual leave. Does this apply to teachers too and if so how does it work? I'll 'miss out' on 6 weeks of holidays during my maternity.

only if you are in Scotland - if you are in England, it's tough nuts (irritatingly - I lost six weeks maternity in summer hols, too).

hi,
I'm also a secondary teacher , pregnant with my 1st (17+5), and finding this new term very difficult to deal with.

I'm an experienced teacher and usually have excellent classroom managment. This term however, some classes seem to be running riot. There are of course a number of reasons but I don't seem to be able to deal with it like i have done in the past (hormones? tiredness? etc) and my usual strategies don't seem to be working

one class in particular, who are bottom set, are driving me crazy - and I'm getting very stressed - then getting stressed about being stressed!!! My SMT are very supportive but HOD isn't.

as teachers, i know we so often put our pupils first, and while i know its time to prioritise the health of me & the baby, there is just always so much work to be completed. I guess I just have to accept that I cannot do it all.

I've found reading this very enlightening! I'm a secondary Science Teacher; currently 29 weeks pregnant. 3 weeks into term I'm really starting to struggle with tiredness and mobility issues. Add to this the fact that I've not had a risk assessment at work and have a full t/t with only 3 "free" lessons. One of which is designated as department support (so I have to be in a different part of the school to mop up the kids sent out of lessons) and the other two frees people teach in my lab so I have to lug everything I need (sets of books/laptop/planner etc) somewhere else. I'm also still down to do am and pm duty outside one day a week (tho thankfully not break time!). At the moment I'm starting to find it physically hard to get upstairs to the prep/staff room at break/lunch but H&S says I cannot eat or drink in my room and besides, I like the social aspect of getting up there. I'm beginning to feel really let down by my department and slt who all say "take things easy" but do absolutely nothing to help me take things easy. I don't want to be seen as a pregnant whinger but it's so bloody hard!

I'm a Maths teacher and I'm 24 weeks pregnant. I told my Head at the end of last term and have been accommodated, eg have all my lessons in one place etc.

The main problem is that female teachers suffer from massive guilt and if you have been putting 100% into your teaching for years it's hard to change that. I am learning to chill out, never shout, rely on my good relationships with my students and only do what I need to. It's really hard just deleting emails that don't really concern me but that I would have responded to in the past but I'm learning!

Question: I'm sporty and tall and have a small bump for my stage so I'm thinking right now that I can work quite late. I am due early Jan and am planning to make it to the end of term in Dec, am I nuts??!!

Hi all, I am also a secondary teacher and am newly pregnant with number 1 (I'm only 6wks+3 and have only told my HoD so far). I am worried about the amount of moving around the school site that I have to do. The site is very large, with several separate buildings, and I teach in all of them, on the 1st floor in two. Sometimes I have to move backwards and forwards between every lesson that I teach. I am alright at the moment, although I am shattered when I get home, but I am worried about later on when I am bigger. Our corridors get very crowded, and I am worried about the stairs!! Does anyone know if it is reasonable in a Risk Assessment to insist that my lessons are rearranged where possible to be in the same building?

It's been really interesting to read these messages on here and has perked me up a bit! I'm a Year 2/3 teacher in a school in Special Measures and life as a pregnant teacher has been hard! I'm around 13 weeks pregnant and have just exhausted myself to the point that I have had to be signed off by the doctor for a couple of weeks. During the first trimester I never slowed down. Because of the situation our school is in the work load is tough, we're basically never allowed to have an 'off' day in terms of our teaching and are made to feel we are not doing our job if we do. My working day would often start at 7.30am and not finish until 9pm, weekends have been non existant for the last term until this weekend. Last weekend I had a total breakdown (which me and hubby initially put down to pregnancy hormones!) and my parents made me go to the doctors who immeadiately signed me off for two weeks. I felt terrible having to tell the head but she has been very sympathetic. I think my point is that sometimes we have to stop being martyrs and take time for ourselves: it's not just us we now have to think about (we often have the mentality of working until the holidays and spend the whole time ill) but we're responsible for growing a healthy baby. This is probably the one time in our career where we put ourselves first, we should do it!
This experience has also taught me to take all my antenatal appointments in school time rather than after work, no one will thank me for it!
Rant over!

It's really interesting reading everyone's ideas.
I'm now in my 7th week (1st pg), but I'm a primary supply teacher.
It's been a boon not having the planning and marking burden of a FT permanent teacher, as I've been shattered in the evenings!
I tend to work through lunchbreaks, marking and writing feedback for the teacher, so that reduces the hours I do at the end of the day.

However, my dilemmas centre around:

• needing to munch to stave away the nausea
• when and what to tell my agency (worries that they'll reduce the no of jobs they offer, which will impact on my mat entitlement)
• worries about safety of bump if i have to do playground duty *appearing unprofessional if I don't give my usual everything, and begin to teach sitting down if I'm feeling it in the day

Any of your ideas for the supply situation would be most welcome too. (Sorry - not meaning to hijack thread!)