Power To The Bump: Pregnancy In The Workplace

Feeling safe and risk free in the workplace is a necessity, but what happens when your circumstances change? Being pregnant at work changes your environment and to help protect you and your baby your workspace needs to be re-evaluated by you and employer. You can both do this together with these very easy steps.

What you can do as an employee:

• Tell your boss, they can be there to support you – you don’t have to share your news with everyone but hopefully there should be a figure head you can rely on to help you through the process at work.
• Keep records of your time off from doctors appointments to antenatal, the more tracking you do the better the relationship between you and your employer. Do make sure you attend the classes as they can help reduce your stress and keeping up to date with appointments can help maintain your health is on tip-top form.
• Plan your maternity leave. Support is a two way street, you can help your employer by having regular chats about when you’d like to take your maternity leave. This may change as your pregnancy develops. However, do note you don’t have to state how long you want to be off for, but you do need to give your employer 8 weeks notice before returning.

What you can do as an employer:

• Risk assess your employees environment – this will change as the pregnancy progresses, so doing this regularly can highlight new risks that can be dealt with quickly and efficiently.
• Encourage your worker to attend classes – this is great for their health and happiness and feeling appreciated goes a long way in the office.
• Provide the right information for maternity leave. Both employer and employee can have a good understanding of each others needs and the smoothest transition is always a planned transition.

All of this will help create a good relationship as well as a healthy and happy environment for all.

Want more information? Find out all about #powertothebump here. Need more help and guidance? Why not give us an email today?