Would you take on a challenging new project while pregnant?

[bluefoxtail]

I'm 7 weeks pregnant. First pregnancy, no complications so far. I'm tired and a bit nauseous but otherwise ok, though know it's early days.

An opportunity has come up to work on a new project. It sounds interesting and could open up the possibility of a promotion before going on mat leave (improving mat leave pay). But I've also been warned it's a challenging role and will require resilience, so am worried it's a bad idea and I should be taking it easy instead.

I can't have an open discussion with my manager on this as I've not told them about the pregnancy yet (though I know they'll be supportive).

What would you do?

I would, pregnant not ill and all that, obviously you may need to reassess if you have a complicated pregnancy but no reason to assume you will. If you're up for the challenge, go for it.

Yes! I did exactly that in my first pregnancy.

I was lucky in that my first pregnancy was easy. It didn’t really affect my work, and it let me go on mat leave with a nice pay rise and bonus, and a great reputation to come back to.

I found stepping up then much, much easier than I would have done with a little one.

My second pregnancy wasn’t so easy, so I know doing this wouldn’t be straightforward for everyone. But if you encounter complications, bluntly, your work just has to deal with them.

Being more senior (thanks in part to the project I did when pregnant the first time) made it much easier for me to have the flexibility I needed when DD1 was small, and in my tricky pregnancy with DD2.

I started a big project at work when i was a few weeks pregnant. I have a good relationship with my manager so i told him early on i was expecting and he covered a couple of meetings for me when i was really sick but otherwise it was fine.

I also got a promotion confirmed my last day before going on mat leave so it was def worth it 😅

Yes I would. I say this as somebody that didn't because I'd just found out I was pregnant with dt. 15 years on its a career regret.

Like @Mushroomofficeglass I turned an amazing opportunity down when just pregnant with dc1 and regretted it for a long time.
My female boss, who wanted to put me forward, thought I was bonkers when I told her the reason. She was right, I should have taken it.