Anyone else in a potentially dangerous job? If so how soon did you tell the people at work?

[montym]

I am only just over 4 weeks pg and do not want to tell work too soon because of 3 previous mc. Anyone else in a line of work like fire fighters, door staff, ambulance crew etc where they are likely to get into dodgy situations?

Hi there - congratulations on your pregnancy I was a nurse in a secure environment when I got pregnant twice, (sadly miscarried both too). However, as an employer they have a duty of care to look after you, do a risk assessment and look after your health and safety. So I told my bosses at the 4 week stage (he didn't like being told that early!) - but when I did miscarry - the pressure was off to say why. Also in those type of jobs, any type of sickness during pregnancy doesn't count towards 'points' or sickness abscence (sp?) policies.
Sorry for the ramble - I can understand why you wouldn't want to tell anyone so soon - but if you did - you'd at least be taken care of? Fingers crossed & all the best xxx

I would let your employers know as soon as possible, maybe confiding in your immediate/ employing manager. I have recently completed a workplace risk assessment on a colleague who is in early pregnancy, and due to previous problems does not want others to know (yet). She also works in a fairly 'volatile' customer facing job.
So that she could have adjustment made to her working arrangements/ hours, it was imperative the risk assessment was done as early as poss to ensure that she was being look after.

Sooner rather than later - and congratulations!

Hi Montym,I am nurse administering chemo so was not at risk in physical ways but in other ways.If you work for public sector org they should be good.Inform them of PG ASAP and legally you should have risk assessment done.You need some of the posters such as "Flowerybeanbag" or "LLaregrub" who are PR peeps to give best advice.Post in "Employment issues" Topic.

Congratulations on your pregnancy.

Sorry HR (human resources or "personnel") NOT pr!"

I wanted to get to 8 weeks so as to complete my qualifying year before telling. But was soooo hopelessly weak and nauseous that I had to take six weeks off sick before then being taken off the road to spend the rest of the pregnancy in a dark office next to a garage.
I guess you should tell really, it's the safest thing to do, but I do understand the desire to hide it for a bit longer.
Congratuations.

Thanks for the advice, what you are saying makes sense. The other thing that puts me off saying anything is that I have only just had ny part time working application agreed. One of the reasons I put for requesting p/t working was the fact that after 3 mc it looked like dd was going to be my only child. Definitely seems a bit sus to announce pg now! I did not plan it that way btw, but I think my boss might wonder...

I am an approved social worker, so part of my job is to section people, either in their homes or at police stations, and convey them to hospital. I was when they risks in this work were not covered by my risk assessment, which focused on whether my chair was at the right height for my desk!

I informed my supervisor as soon as I knew I was pregnant for the above reasons. But sadly it was up to me to put my foot down about not during a few particularly risky assessments.

Most employers are so much better at working around the risks. DH is a police officer and each of his pregnant colleagues were offered transfers to non public-facing roles for the duration of their pregnancies.

Message withdrawn

Hi, I'm a lab manager for a waste management company, and as such regularly come into contact with dangerous substances which could potentially damage me or the baby. I told my boss as soon as I knew I was pg, and he arranged an immediate risk assessment which determined I should limit my time in the lab, not do any work involving chemicals and stay off the process plant.
You definitely should arrange a risk assessment.
It was tough as I didn't want people to know that early but it was important people were aware as they could inadvertently put me in danger.
I also had a miscarriage, and it helped I think people knowing - it actually happened when I was at work, everyone was very sympathetic and gave me space when I needed it.

With my first pregnancy there were work collegues who were working with ionising radiation. I told my boss as soon I knew.

With this pregnancy my job is a lot safer. So I waited until 12 weeks.

I work for an emergency service (in HR) and our operational staff don't have to tell us but it is highly recommended that they do so that they can be moved off the front line and into light duties straight away.

As I said, obviously it is upto the member of staff but I think most of them do for their own benefit - I was talking to one member of staff about it and she said she could never forgive herself if something did happen to the baby just because she hadn't wanted to disclose it.

It is a very awkward position though and forces staff to declare pg earlier than they probably would want to.

I think I was fove months gone both times i declared but as a manger i was able to avoid the risky situations without raising any sor tof issue.

I do under stand why you don't want to announce. It happened in my office when a staff member announced at 4 weeks and mc'd a week later. She did say in many ways it was particularly difficult because everyone knew and she found it v difficult to return partly because of this (took 2 months off sick). She has gone on to have a successful pregnancy since but the second time she did tell me at 4 weeks but instead of announcing it to the office I found a 'project' for her so she wasn't put in risky positions but the whole office didn't need to know until she felt she wanted them to know.

I've just had another staff member announce at 4 weeks and we have done the same thing. Even if someone has suspicions they realise that the person doesn't want to make a full announcement. You need to tell your manager so they are aware.

Hi, i'm 13 weeks and a train driver. Job involves driving in tunnel for long periods, and in an emergency would need to walk along live tracks to use signal phone, or evacuate passengers in tunnel by deploying emergency ramp. Also when in train depots we walk over live rails.
I told them pretty much immediately, and now i sit 'spare' doing short stints of driving trains, e.g giving other drivers breaks. This has kept the tunnel driving to a minimum. Gp signed me off when MS was very bad as did not feel it safe for me to drive passenger trains while nauseous/vomiting. I have had an early MC where i told work immediately, unfortunately MC the next day which was horrible and i wished i hadn't told them yet, but they were very understanding and it wasnt too bad. I think when my bump gets bigger i will be taken off the trains and they'll find me some paper shuffling to do.

Citybranch I am assuming by your post you work for an underground railway? In which case you should not be on the trains at all. Has a proper risk assessment been done? Tunnel or not - you may still have to emergency detrain or walk over/ on live rails. I would check this out with your managers - or OH

Sorry - over or beside live rails. Doh!