Hi all - working while pregnant??

Hi everyone!

Thanks for welcoming me to BellyBelly! I've just discovered I am 4 weeks pregnant (YAY :D)! HAs been a bit of a battle for myself and my husband as I had a condition that was making pregnancy difficult for us but we finally made it and we are both so excited!

I was wondering if any mums out there can help me with a current dilemma I face. I am a teacher and for the past 4 months have been relief teaching in primary schools around Brisbane. The school holidays are about to come up and I need work so was considering going back into childcare. Now that I am pregnant though I don't know what to do about divulging this information to potential employers. Before I even knew I was pregnant I had already sent out numerous applications for full time jobs and now I don't know what to do if I get offered them?? :help:

I wold appreciate any views or advice anyone can offer me and thank you in advance!

I personally think that you should tell any potential employers, I would have the interveiw and make them see why they should hire me, advise them of the pregnancy and my plans after the birth, although that is MY opinion. When I worked in CC we had a lady that worked with us 3-4 days a week through an agency from early in her pregnancy through to full term, maybe this would be an option for you? To do temp work in CC centres?

Good Luck with your job applications, I know that if the person was right for the job, I would hire them even if they were pregnant :D

Deanne.

Congrats first of all Hope everything continues to go well for you!

An employer can't not hire you because you are pregnant i'm pretty sure, i guess it's up to you if you want to tell them. If you get a job offer in the next few weeks its still early days in your pregnancy so you mightn't want to say anything to anyone and when you do tell them down the track you don't even need to say if you knew when they offered you the job. If you decide to tell them straight up just be honest and say how long you are wanting to work in your pregnancy and go from there, who knows they might have a short term position they could offer you.

Good luck with whatever you decide :)

I wouldnt say anything to any possible employers. They shouldnt discriminate against pregnant women but I think its better to be safe and divulge information once a job is secured.

Good luck with the job hunting and congrats on the baby news! YAY!

Congrats - Technically you don't have to and they cannot not offer to you beacuse you are PG. However how much lifting etc is involed in Childcare now, and do you want to restrict that?

Have you thought about casual on call work?

I waited 2 weeks after i was hired before i told my boss i was pregnant..that way if he let me go i pretty much knew it was because of my pregnancy and an employer is not allowed to fire somone due to pregnancy. I was lucky and my boss was great about it.. asked me when iw ould expect to take my leave and when i would be returning..

Thank you all for your responses. There is some good view points in there I hadn't thought of. :)

Hi astaevia - only thing I would check if doing CC again is if they have any policy on pregnancy- my SIL has worked in cc for about 7 yrs and when she got preg they got her to sign some sort of form agreeing that if the kids are sick she goes home and gets paid sick leave...I think its a way of the cc centre covering their own butts incase u catch anything off the kids while pg