Pregnancy, Work and Maternity Leave
Pregnancy and work do not always go hand in hand, therefore careful planning and preparations may be necessary to ensure that you and your employer know what to expect while you are expecting. Learning to balance pregnancy and work will include determining the best way to manage symptoms while on the job, working with your employer to ensure that prenatal appointments and work obligations can both be successfully accomplished, and maintaining productivity when you are managing fatigue, nausea, trips to the bathroom and trying to keep your energy up.
All of this is entirely possible and many, many women continue to work through the majority of their pregnancies with great success. Careful scheduling, afternoon walks to help keep your energy up, keeping snacks in your desk drawer and bringing a toothbrush to work for when nausea gets the best of you are all helpful hints that will make working during pregnancy a bit easier to manage. Of course, there are a number of factors which may affect your ability to work during different stages of your pregnancy, and if your doctor orders bed rest, you may face special challenges in either arranging to work from home or managing finances without your regular income.
How long you can work during your pregnancy will depend largely on the type of work you do and how your pregnancy progresses. Many women who work in office environments and progress normally through their pregnancy are able to work all the way up to their scheduled due date or scheduled date for maternity leave; however, women who are experiencing difficult pregnancies or work in jobs that require hours of standing or physical labor will likely have a more difficult time working through pregnancy and may need to consider other options early on.
One important aspect of working during pregnancy is planning for maternity leave. As soon as you find out you are pregnant, it is imperative that you determine what benefits are available to you and what rights and protections you have, which will depend on a blend of federal and state laws and your employer?s company policies. While the Family and Medical Leave Act ensures that women working full-time for at least one year for companies that employ more than 50 people will receive up to 12 weeks of leave, this law does not cover many workers and does not include any guarantee of pay. Some employers offer great maternity leave benefits, while others offer absolutely nothing ? and may not be required to, depending on the state. Most women who are able to take time off for bringing home their new baby arrange for maternity leave by working with their employer to create a plan using a combination of vacation days, sick leave, personal days, holiday time, unpaid family leave and short-term disability.
Determining the amount of maternity leave you have access to and whether or not you will be paid for some or all of that leave can be a bit tricky; therefore, this task should be undertaken early on in your pregnancy, particularly if there is a possibility that you will not be able to obtain paid, or even unpaid, leave and you and your partner may need to make other arrangements.
