on-call work whilst pregnant

[BrianA]

Once you have notified your employer that you are pregnant it is their duty of care to carry out a risk assessment in the workplace. It should be a very comprehensive risk assessment.

[Lactulosequeen]

Hi fabulous, hope you are feeling less sick now and managed to sort out your work situation? I'm also pregnant and finding it tough, not helped by pregnant people who say the blooming obvious- ie pregnacy is not an illness!! If you feel crap to the point of it affecting your work, as a professional you have a responsibility to change your work pattern- if you made a mistake that resulted in harm, I bet the tribunal wouldn't accept- preg head as an excuse! I've had to push hard to get my hours and work changed, eg coming off the wards for part of the day, swapping stand-up work for desk work etc, and I thought that working at a hospital it would be easy! I've not even had a risk assessment done yet, just a casual "don't go into side rooms with shingles"- really?!! If I didn't know that already! I've had to sort out my own occupational health appointement as well as I have spd and had to take some time off because of physio appointments etc-so the nhs isn't always the most understanding place to work when pregnant! My advice would be go to occupational health first if you are getting nowhere which your line manager, they will be used to dealing with pregnant women, ie nurses working shifts etc. And if you are sick, take time off- if you struggle into work like a martyr, you won't be seen as one, and like I said before, if you make an error your employer won't support you. Finally, don't do what I did and look at the other pregnant people getting on with it- it's their pregnancy and they might be coping, but by comparing yourself to them doesn't help your pregnancy, especially if you are suffering! Good luck, and by the way I'm writing this whilst suffering from horrendous indigestion! Luckily I have booked annual leave tomorrow!