Im a new hire and im pregnant

Nurses New Nurse

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Interviewed for a new job last week and was offered employment this week. I start next Wednesday. With all this going on I just discovered I haven't had a June period so I took a test a wow its +. I go to the OB on July 16 and I'm calculating I'm 5 weeks now and will be 8 weeks at my OB appointment..when and how should I tell my new boss...I'm worried ill get "let go". Any wise words or suggestions? You have to be at a job 12 months before you can get FMLA and I'm due in February... What about short term disability? I dont know what to do :-/ my friend who works in a different dept at this same hospital started when she was 15 weeks pregnant and got FMLA even though she wasn't there 12 months( she was there 5 months)...her department was fine with everything and she had no trouble! Hope ill be able to say the same..

Specializes in ICU.

Hi OP! You may want to consider telling your employer prior to the 12 weeks in order to avoid getting isolation patients. I'm not sure if you work in a clinic or a hospital, but you want to protect yourself and the baby. Good luck and congrats on the new job!

BTW, to the rude poster (not OP) - pregnancy is considered a disability because it is a condition that can prevent you from performing some or all of your job temporarily and that can result in a loss of income. I used to work as a disability claims analyst and pregnancy accounted for over half of our short term disability claims at our company. Humans are not work machines. Pregnant women right before and right after birth will be incapable of performing a medium-heavy workload (i.e. nursing) therefore they will need to take some kind of leave. That's normal and acceptable.

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Congrats!! I wish you the best of luck with your employer. We used to have paid maternity leave, but that was taken away. I now pay extra for an STD to provide some income while I'm out on mine. Also I would not say anything until you are 12-15 weeks. We didn't tell ANYONE until then. It was tough, but it was fun keeping it a secret.

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On my floor we get plenty of isolation. Pregnancy does not matter unless it is one of the isolations that are really contraindicated. And for mrsa, vre, cdiff, flu,esbl, 699lb pts who jeed turn/ repo, 1:1s.... you'll get those too.... sometimes we only have a handful of pts that aren't in one of those categories. Don't expect all the easy walkie talkies if pregnant or extra help from most staff. some of them actually seem resentful for being expected to pick up more work.... We have had 9 month pregnant nurses and they have to take the same assignment as everyone else with few exceptions.

I agree...if you work on one of those floors.

If you don't, then I believe that nurses need to look out for each other.

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Accidents happen and all, but I see so many of these posts. Did it ever occur to many a new grad that starting as a new grad RN is not the opportune time to put oneself in this position? Since when is pregnancy a disability?

Don't confuse the two....pregnancy being a disability versus being treated as a disability for benefit purposes are two different things.

Any corporation I have ever worked for in 25 years has treated pregnancy one of two ways.

1. You had a separate maternity leave benefit

2. You used short-term disability.

Nothing changed with the FMLA other than more time, which is unpaid if you have no PTO left.

So, if your employer, let's say, has a maternity benefit that lasts 6 weeks and your doctor writes you out for 8 weeks. You use your maternity benefit for 6 weeks and then you would have to defer to your benefit plan to see when short-term disability kicks in. Typically this is after 14 calender days (the most common) and some even restrict it further by requiring you to exhaust all of your PTO before STD will kick in, limited to two weeks, because that is how long extra the doctor wrote you out for.

If you want to take FMLA (if you qualify), then you can take up to a total of 12 weeks off (combined benefit) and FMLA allows you to break this up over a calender year.

If you don't have a maternity benefit, then you would defer to your short-term disability plan and you get wrote out for however long the doctor writes you out for, just like they would for any surgery or condition.

Never worked anywhere in my life where it was treated any differently.

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ARE YOU SERIOUS! She didn't say she accidentally got pregnant.

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Specializes in Oncology; medical specialty website.
So what y'all are saying is even though I don't qualify for FMLA because it'll be before 12 months I will still get 4-6 weeks leave?

We can't tell you how much time you will get; that varies from one employer to another. Your best bet is to ask HR. And don't take any PTO unless you absolutely must.

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How about checking with your state's L&I department? The website in my state has a link leading to federal and state family leave regulations.

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I was 8 weeks pregnant when I graduated LPN school, by the time I took nclex I was showing and that played into not getting a job for a year. Was it planned? Heck no and it did make finding a job and starting a new job as a new nurse difficult, but hey you do what you have to do. I have a beautiful son and a wonderful husband (and now a second beautiful child a girl) to show for it and I wouldn't change a thing from my past. I was working when I was pregnant with my second, my co workers were overly helpful lol they didn't even want me to lift a 10 pound box. So it just depends on where you work and the kind of people you work with. Enjoy this op you have become a nurse, gained employment, and your bringing new life into this world. You have reason to celebrate!

Oh and just a side note, my work was too small for FMLA. They gave me 6 weeks, there was no way they were going to want to train someone new to replace me because it would take longer than 6 weeks.

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I was 8 weeks pregnant when I graduated LPN school, by the time I took nclex I was showing and that played into not getting a job for a year. Was it planned? Heck no and it did make finding a job and starting a new job as a new nurse difficult, but hey you do what you have to do. I have a beautiful son and a wonderful husband (and now a second beautiful child a girl) to show for it and I wouldn't change a thing from my past. I was working when I was pregnant with my second, my co workers were overly helpful lol they didn't even want me to lift a 10 pound box. So it just depends on where you work and the kind of people you work with. Enjoy this op you have become a nurse, gained employment, and your bringing new life into this world. You have reason to celebrate!

Oh and just a side note, my work was too small for FMLA. They gave me 6 weeks, there was no way they were going to want to train someone new to replace me because it would take longer than 6 weeks.

Thank you for your uplifting story! :)

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Thank you for your uplifting story! :)

IME, people in the real world are much more supportive of pregnant ladies than people on the internet are. Online people tell you not to avoid patients and situations that are risky to you and the baby because "it's not fair" and "no one forced you to get pregnant." In the real world, people freak out if you try to lift anything on your own and trade patients to keep you from having to go in a room with an infectious disease that's high risk for pregnant women or that psych patient who likes to kick nurses in the belly.

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Specializes in L&D.

Also, the time you get off....is also determined by your doc. In a job that is physically demanding like nursing, your ob will clear you for work at your 6 week check up. I would recommend 6 weeks at least...gives you plenty of time to heal, plus bond with the new baby and get somewhat of a schedule. Some women still have pp bleeding at 4 weeks(I know I did!). I was able to take 10 weeks off paid, but I used up all my sick leave plus some of my vacation time. That is how many take time off "paid". It's paid, but it's paid by your acrued leave. I acrued that much by working for 3-4 yrs with almost no vacation time. Also you do want to leave some time saved if you are able to b/c babies do get sick and have to go to the doc(although you should be able to plan well visits for days off).

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IME, people in the real world are much more supportive of pregnant ladies than people on the internet are. Online people tell you not to avoid patients and situations that are risky to you and the baby because "it's not fair" and "no one forced you to get pregnant." In the real world, people freak out if you try to lift anything on your own and trade patients to keep you from having to go in a room with an infectious disease that's high risk for pregnant women or that psych patient who likes to kick nurses in the belly.
some..... maybe I just work with all awful people ....... some will help while going on and on and on about how inconvenienced they are. we've had a couple pregnant nurses and most work until 9months. they get cdiff, vre, mrsa pts ( sometimes that is 75% of our unit ).
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