Managing first pregnancy while teaching

[ridl14]

I'm currently 6 (almost 7 - already dragging!) weeks pregnant and have felt so lucky that I'm spending a good part of my first trimester over the summer holidays and with gained time currently.

My question is does anyone have any tips for managing pregnancy and successfully asking for accommodations while pregnant and teaching? I work in secondary full time. Next year I have 3 consecutive full days vast majority single lessons and late lunch so three singles back to back midday. I have five "frees" but will be likely used for cover for two of them.

I haven't told my school yet as we break up soon and DH and I wanted to wait until the pregnancy seemed more confirmed. I'd like to ask to be able to go to the loo between lessons, and have work be aware so I'm able to sit down if I need to (I've had some lightheadedness already).

I'm also hoping to use shared parental leave to take 3 blocks of mat leave. Due date would be late Feb/early March.

Any advice or anything to avoid? Thank you!

I think you are overthinking this tbh. If you don't tell work until after the holidays, then obviously they can't make adjustments until then. People have completely different symptoms so what they need, if anything, will be completely different. I made my team aware pretty early on because I needed to pee frequently and needed someone to watch my class briefly if I got caught out in a lesson, but besides that, I was completely fine until the last few days. Some people needed even less support than that, some needed more 🤷🏻‍♀️. When you've told them, they'll probably do a risk assessment anyway and you can voice adjustments then

I had my 12 week scan just before we broke up so I told everyone when we came back in September. I asked for lots of adjustments e.g. teaching in the same room all day, not doing break duties, sitting down when needed, going to the loo etc etc and none of it was a problem! I would tell someone at school as soon as you've had your scan tbh although hopefully you should feel better by that point, I only really felt I needed a bit of support for the last 6 weeks or so as I was tired and going up stairs was hard.

3 blocks of maternity leave sounds like a nightmare for the school's organisation! Wouldn't it leave them no choice but to get loads of supplies in? I've never heard of anyone doing this.

In secondary, the only real adjustments that myself and colleagues had were: minimal room changes, not working with radiation sources and no football court duty.

No it would be over the holidays so no interruption. I definitely recommend reading about teachers using SPL especially as we don't accrue holiday like other professions!

Thank you!

Thank you this is really helpful!