Working While Pregnant: Rights, Risks and Adjustments

Working in pregnancy: how to think about it

NHS guidance on health at work in pregnancy sets out that once you tell your employer you are pregnant, they should carry out a risk assessment of your role, and that if a risk is identified they should remove it, offer suitable alternative work, or suspend you on full pay. The exposures that commonly need attention are heavy lifting and manual handling, long periods standing or sitting, work with chemicals or lead, radiation, excessive noise or vibration, night and long shifts, and jobs with infection contact such as healthcare, laboratory and childcare roles. The guidance also covers entitlement to paid time off for antenatal appointments. None of this implies most people should stop working: the framing is that most can continue with assessment and, where needed, adjustment. Tiredness in the first and third trimesters is common and is a legitimate thing to raise rather than to push through silently.

Working: safer choices

• Telling your employer, which triggers the legal protections and the risk assessment NHS guidance describes.
• Asking for the risk assessment to cover your actual tasks, including lifting, standing time, chemical exposure, night shifts and infection contact.
• Requesting practical adjustments such as more frequent breaks, a chair, reduced lifting or a change of duties.
• Keeping antenatal appointments. NHS notes you are entitled to paid time off for antenatal care.
• Raising fatigue, nausea or pain with your midwife as well as your employer, since adjustments work better when the clinical picture is known.

Working: what to avoid or double-check

• Do not continue tasks a risk assessment has flagged, such as heavy lifting or chemical handling, on the basis of managing before.
• Avoid prolonged standing without breaks, which is associated with more back pain and swelling.
• Do not assume you must disclose immediately. There are notice requirements, but the protections and the assessment follow disclosure, so delaying too long delays those too.
• Do not ignore exposures that matter more in pregnancy, including certain chemicals, radiation and infection risk in healthcare or childcare settings. These belong in the assessment.

How SafeMama helps

SafeMama can check product labels you handle at work, including cleaning chemicals, solvents, paints and cosmetics ingredients, which is useful when a risk assessment asks what you are actually exposed to.

Open the SafeMama app, scan the barcode or search the ingredient, then use the result as a starting point for a conversation with your healthcare provider.

Sources

• NHS your health at work in pregnancy
• NHS keeping well in pregnancy