As hard as it was to navigate the path towards deciding when to tell your boss about your pregnancy and then actually telling them, if you work during your pregnancy you will have another, even tougher decision to make. As your pregnancy progresses, the question of when you will be leaving work is likely to become a frequent thought for you. When many women get pregnant, they plan to work right up until the end of their forty weeks.
Of course, pregnancy has a funny way of derailing even the best laid plans. You may have to make the decision to leave work before the end of your pregnancy if you develop a medical condition which requires you to be on bed rest. You might also find that towards the end of your pregnancy, you just do not feel like working for whatever reason. These things are impossible to predict at the beginning of your pregnancy, so do not feel like you are bound by any statements that you initially made about when you plan to make your exit.
Of course, economic pressures may weigh heavily in a decision about when to leave work because many employers do not offer much in the way of paid maternity leave and most women want to use all of that time that they do get after the baby is born. Other factors that are likely to play a role include whether your work is physical and whether you are experiencing any pregnancy discomforts that may not merit a prescription of bed rest but make working rather uncomfortable. If you begin to get the feeling that you may want to make an exit before your due date, it may be time to have a conversation with your boss about how and when you will be leaving.
Photo by mconnors on morguefile.com.