How long should you wait before telling your colleagues you are preganant?

Answer 1

It's best not to tell anyone, apart from maybe one or two important people, until after the 12 week mark when chance of miscarriage is greatly reduced.
As for work, depending on your job and attitude to work, it's usually best not to tell for as long as you can possibly manage. Although companies aren't allowed to discriminate they invariably do, so if you enjoy your job and don't want to be over-looked for promotion, extra training, etc. try to keep it quiet until someone asks if you're smuggling a football! If however you are happy to slow down the pace then around 20 weeks would be ok.
It's best to make sure everything is ok with the pregancy before telling too many people to minimise the upset if things go wrong as a friend of mine recently discovered. She had told a lot of people and was only a few weeks pregnant. Sadly she lost the baby but what made it worse was that she had to tell all the people that she'd told.
Good luck with the baby, although I suspect it's not you that's pregnant Philip!

Answer 2

If you have an office job, wait until after the first trimester (3mo's) until the danger period has ended. You will be starting to show by then anyway.

If your job involves lifting or standing for periods of time then let them know asap as they will have to find you other suitable work.

If you have any trouble remember as soon as you formally tell them you are pregnant they cannot sack you without a risk of them being sued! You have an awful lot of rights when pregnant so your employers would have to be very careful if they wanted to get rid of you.

Congratulations anyway ( i take it that you are!) and if you want information about the pregnancy etc there is a brilliant website www.babycentre.co.uk which can give you LOADS of info about every aspect of pregnancy right up to school age.

Good luck!

Answer 3

I'd wait until at least three months - but after that the sooner the better. Risk assessments need to be made for pregnant women in the environment, and once your employer has been informed you get time off to attend ante-natal appointments with full pay. They'll also be more likely to take it well if they've been informed from the start. Telling them at the last minute might not go down very well.

Answer 4

I would wait upto 5-6 months. I had a miscarriage earlier in the year and i was nearly 5 months, by then as this was my first pregnancy i had told everyone at work and showed scan pictures etc.. seriously i would wait until 6 months when you get your medical certificate. hope this is useful

Answer 5

If you are meaning your boss, I would say it depends on how close you are with him or her. Generally, they say to wait 3 months to spread the word, in case of something unfortunate happens such as a miscarriage (not to scare you, sorry) . I would say by the 7th month to tell management/personnel so they know ahead of time you will out for maternity leave and they can make arrangements for while you are gone.

Answer 6

Until they ask or it effects your work performance. Try and remember that you are having a baby not the office. Don't expect the office to cover your workload or change with special accommodations while your having baby appointments, sick days, maternity leave etc... They aren't having a baby, you are and shouldn't be penalized for it.

I think most of the bad feelings I have seen in the workplace have started with the employee wanting special consideration over others.

Having a baby can be a joyous time for you and all those around you. Make sure you are as sensitive and considerate of them as you wish them to be of you while your going through your pregnancy.

Answer 7

it dependse theres a high risk of having a miscarriage during the first trimester. Often women chose to wait until after that to let anyone know. However alot of people are so excited they just cant keep their mouth closed. Also if tradegy were to strike and people did know you would be underthe spot light, however there would be alot more support.

Answer 8

It depends what kind of job you do. You need to take some advice re health and safety for any work environment. Perhaps you could speak confidentially to your Health and Safety officer/HR Department.

It could be wise to let the colleagues in your immediate area know, in yours and your baby's interests.

Answer 9

I told my colleagues in my team as soon as I knew because my jobbed involved lifting heavy coin bags, tills, pushing heavy trolleys. i told them so that they would understand why i could no longer do this. I then told the rest of the people at work at about 3 months.

Answer 10

Most people wait until three months or they are showing. However, if you are very ill with morning sickness, you may want to mention something earlier as you're going to be running to the bathroom a lot!