School trips whilst pregnant

[clhsgirl]

Hi everyone,

I am 8 weeks pregnant and teach Year 1. I have taught primary for 11 years. Although all babies are precious, we have had to work very hard to get this far with 5 years of infertility, 3 rounds of IVF and 2 early miscarriages so I recognise that I might be being a bit precious.

I have historically found school trips possibly the most stressful part of the job and have worked out that I will be 26 weeks pregnant when I am due to take my class on a day trip to a castle next year. Even though it is a long way off, I'm already feeling extremely anxious about it. I have generalised anxiety disorder and previous school trips (before I started taking sertraline) have on occasion caused massive flare ups. I am worried about the implications that this level of potential stress and anxiety might have on my pregnancy as well as if I will even manage generally (have not been that pregnant before so don't know).

Would it be unreasonable to ask if alternative arrangements could be put in place? I would be very happy to teach another class for the day to free up another teacher to go for example. Has anyone else been in this position? What was the response from your head? Thank you in advance!

It is normal to take into account a teacher's pregnancy when completing the risk assessment for a trip, especially for residentials or certain activities. Given your existing diagnosis of GAD, if you aren't already under the perinatal mental health team then you should seriously consider asking your midwife to refer you when you have your booking-in appointment. They will be able to provide a clinical opinion that the trip is a likely trigger for your anxiety and your school will have to take it into account when completing their risk assessment.

If your head is understanding, I’d like to think you’d have no issues with this. It’s really no big deal for the school to swap you with another teacher for a day, like you say, and you teach their class whilst they go on the trip.
I know it’s slightly different, but our y6 teacher was four months pregnant and didn’t fancy going on the two-night residential, so we swapped and she taught my year fives for three days whilst I went on the residential, and it was no drama at all!

I agree with @CandyCane457 - I work with a lot of primary headteachers across my trust and I can't think of any who would have a problem. They will be led by you and you will need to communicate your wishes clearly: for every pregnant teacher who is anxious about a trip there is another who is determined not to be treated any differently because of their pregnancy and your headteacher won't know which one you are until you tell them! I was in the latter category and went on a trip to France at 30 weeks (once the insurer and visit co-ordinator had signed off on the risk assessment) but everyone is different.

My head would definitely allow this and I'm sure a lot of teachers from other year groups would be keen to go on a trip for a day if they don't go on them too often.

Yes absolutely shouldn't be a problem, please don't worry about it! School can make lots of other adjustments too for you should you need it so as soon as you feel comfortable telling the head, do so, and then things can be put in place. (For example, I stopped doing outside duties, moved rooms so I didn't have to climb stairs, had someone to call if I needed the loo during the lesson etc)

Why not wiait until closer to the time? I would wait until about a month before. If you think it will be too much then you can say so and someone else can take your place.

Thank you all so much for your responses, it has been really helpful and reassuring. I will have a chat with the midwife at my booking in appointment to look into perinatal mental health as I think it is a good idea given my history. I'll then have a chat after this.