Silly question about pregnancy!

Hi guys,

This may be a silly question but what happens if I get pregnant? Do nurses normally keep working many months into the pregnancy? At what point do you normally take maternity leave? Just a few months before the birth?

And is it safe to keep working throughout the pregnancy? My friend was saying "but arent you worried that if you walk around with your belly and with all the stress and bugs and diseases, that your baby might be at risk"

Thoughts anyone?
I have 3 children and i worked until within a week of delivery with all 3. With my youngest, I was 36 yrs old and worked the whole shift the day before he was born

Most of the gals I work with ( and there has been a baby boom lately! lol) work as long as they can. Unless there is problems I have seen a couple work up to a few days before delivery. One was at work the day before(yikes). I guess it depends on the person. As long as you take your normal precautions your baby would not be in danger. It would depend on where you work. We do make sure that if anyone has shingles they do not come in contact with any pregnant staff.

I stopped working as a CNA about a month before I had my daughter. I would say it just depends on how well your time being pregnant treats you. Just judge it by how you feel. But I would suggest working all you can so you get more time after the baby is born to be at home.

Unless there are problems, most nurses work up until they deliver. Some choose to go on leave at 36 or 38 weeks, but many don't have that financial luxury.

Gosh, I worked up until a week/day/hours before having my kids. The only one I had issues with was child #3. She wanted to come at 22 weeks. I was on bedrest the remaineder of the pg. My other 6, I worked with no problems. Sure I was slow, waddled and was tired, but I made it through the last trimester just fine. As for bugs, I did as I always do. Washed my hands and made sure I wasn't around people with shingles or some contagious I hadn't been exposed too. Chemo was another no no I stayed away from.Heck, I think there are probably more bugs on a grocery cart handle than on your hands at work.

I worked until my water broke. It broke while I was walking into work. I called off that day.

Quote from BobbkatI worked until my water broke. It broke while I was walking into work. I called off that day.

Four weeks before my 'due date' I told my doc I couldn't go on much longer. I finished out one more week, and had the baby one week later. The majority of nurses that I knew tried to time at least one or two weeks before the baby was due to get everything ready and have some time to relax a little bit.I did know one nurse many years ago who had a backache all day, finished her shift at 3:30 pm, and went to L&D to ask to be seen. Had her baby at about 5 pm, about a week before her due date.My second child was a 'planned' c-section, for 10/10. I wanted 2 weeks off, prior, but they begged me to wait until after JCAHO was there, on 10/2 & 3. So again, just one week.Every pregnancy is different, every woman is different and every job is different.Best wishes!

Quote from BobbkatI worked until my water broke. It broke while I was walking into work. I called off that day.

Wow, thank you everyone for all your fantastic responses! Looks like Ill be doing the same, belly and all Thanks again lovely people. xx

Unless for some reason your pregnancy becomes high-risk, or you have an underlying health issue that makes it high-risk from the start, there's no good reason to stop working at any point. Of course, all that is between you and your doc. Honestly, I couldn't have imagined sitting at home for 3-4 weeks doing nothing with this pregnancy. I'd have gone stir-crazy and been focused more on how achy and tired I was than anything else. Working helped alleviate some of that. Good luck to you!

I worked through all 3 of mine. I wash my hands well so I don't worry about it. 2 of my pregnancies I worked med/surg and was able to do full duties including lifting, the other psych. I was nervous I was going to get hurt by a patient while working psych. But I didn't, and all was fine. As long as you don't have medical issues, I don't see why you can't work through a pregnancy.