Colleagues/work related relationships - advanced warning?

[lastboxoftampons]

I'm 27 weeks and very obviously pregnant. There are people that I deal with via email and on the phone quite often, but only see in person every few months or so. I will eventually have to let them all know they'll have a different internal contact while I'm out on mat leave, but I'm not sure how best to go about it. I've seen one or two recently - one of which seemed very awkward after I caught her quick glance at my tummy! and the subsequent conversation went something like this:

HER: Um, Hello! I just realized it's a been a while since I've been here!
ME: Yes, I guess it has
HER: Um, how are you?
ME: Well, as you can see I'm a bit rounder!

Perhaps I could've been a bit nicer but gosh it was weird. Makes me think it'd be better to just let people know in an email before they see me, but that just seems so personal and me, me, me when I'm clearly corresponding with them on work related matters.

any advice? Am I overthinking it??

I think you are over-thinking it a little really. Stick to work stuff and talk about it if they raise it.

Congratulations!

Hi LBoT,
I can relate to your issue, I felt the same. It is awkward, you want to tell them "professionally" and not in a woohoo-I-am-so-happy-I'm-not-going-to-be-here-much-longer kind of way ....

I work from home so when I was pg with DD1 no-one ever saw my bump, it'll be same this time too, although not as surprising news I guess!

The way I handled it was this - I started training up my maternity leave cover about 4 weeks before I left (leave started at 35wks), so whenever I called/emailed anyone, generally my replacement was copied in or on the call too.... so I'd explain why they were there or add a note to the end of the email explaining why so-and-so was copied in, something like this - please be aware that I will be on maternity leave from x date and so-and-so will be dealing with your requests from then on. I also left my out of office message on my phone and email saying the same thing, just in case I had missed anyone.

Do you have a replacement that you can start referring too?

I know I felt a bit embarrassed by having to bring it up, but if you keep it very much along the lines of - I want to make your life as simple as possible, so here is all the info you need to make sure that even though I will not be here, what you want will still be done.

Good luck!