Pregnant and working in a creche

Moomat

Hi my wife is in the very early stages of pregnancy, 7 weeks. We're over the moon, it's our first and she wants to wait till after 12 weeks to tell anybody.
She works in a creche and most of the staff including her, regularly gets sore throats, colds, coughs etc.. Our GP has said this is from working with such small children, changing nappies (she's a pro, I'm off the hook!), being around infections etc..
Has anybody any experience of working in such an environment while pregnant and of any issues involved?

Sligo1

Moomat wrote: »

Hi my wife is in the very early stages of pregnancy, 7 weeks. We're over the moon, it's our first and she wants to wait till after 12 weeks to tell anybody.
She works in a creche and most of the staff including her, regularly gets sore throats, colds, coughs etc.. Our GP has said this is from working with such small children, changing nappies (she's a pro, I'm off the hook!), being around infections etc..
Has anybody any experience of working in such an environment while pregnant and of any issues involved?

I can't really give advice here I afraid. But one thing I would personally be worried about is chicken pox. Can be quite dangerous for pregnant women. Make sure she gets her titre (immunity) levels checked. O and CONGRATULATIONS

Moomat

Sligo1 wrote: »

I can't really give advice here I afraid. But one thing I would personally be worried about is chicken pox. Can be quite dangerous for pregnant women. Make sure she gets her titre (immunity) levels checked. O and CONGRATULATIONS

Thanks! She had all those immunity checks last year and all seems to be fine.

Anniebell

Moomat wrote: »

Hi my wife is in the very early stages of pregnancy, 7 weeks. We're over the moon, it's our first and she wants to wait till after 12 weeks to tell anybody.
She works in a creche and most of the staff including her, regularly gets sore throats, colds, coughs etc.. Our GP has said this is from working with such small children, changing nappies (she's a pro, I'm off the hook!), being around infections etc..
Has anybody any experience of working in such an environment while pregnant and of any issues involved?

Hi,

Firstly congrats to you and your wife on your pregnancy.

I worked in a crèche whilst pregnant on my second child and the physical side of the work took it's toll on me & so I was signed off for Health & Safety reasons at 33 weeks pregnant.

The problem with catching illnesses is that for the most part you can't take any medications apart from paracetamol, in particular any meds for vomiting bugs are not allowed in pregnancy.

Does your wife have to do much cleaning as part of her job? Hoovering/mopping/dusting etc? As soon as I informed my place of work of my pregnancy the manager brought me in and completed a Health & Safety assessment, the outcome of which was that I was exempt from such duties.

As my pregnancy progressed, the issue of lifting the babies and toddlers for nappy changes etc became a problem for me as some of the older ones were quite heavy and so again at a later stage I was exempt from carrying out these duties.

All depends on how your wife feels, but I imagine that as soon as she informs her work they will put things in place to make her work as easy as possible for her to carry out. Given the very physical nature of the work, it's not the easiest job to do whilst pregnant but if she looks after herself she will be fine. Any issues she has she should inform her manager ASAP and not hesitate to visit her GP if she needs to.

Regarding the issue of not telling her work until 12 weeks, I totally understand the want to keep the news to herself until then but if anything should happen in work (a fall, a kick in the stomach from a baby etc) her manager should know so that your wife can be protected to a certain extent from any heavy duty work.

Hope this is of some help to you both.

Moomat

Anniebell wrote: »

Hi,

Firstly congrats to you and your wife on your pregnancy.

I worked in a crèche whilst pregnant on my second child and the physical side of the work took it's toll on me & so I was signed off for Health & Safety reasons at 33 weeks pregnant.

The problem with catching illnesses is that for the most part you can't take any medications apart from paracetamol, in particular any meds for vomiting bugs are not allowed in pregnancy.

Does your wife have to do much cleaning as part of her job? Hoovering/mopping/dusting etc? As soon as I informed my place of work of my pregnancy the manager brought me in and completed a Health & Safety assessment, the outcome of which was that I was exempt from such duties.

As my pregnancy progressed, the issue of lifting the babies and toddlers for nappy changes etc became a problem for me as some of the older ones were quite heavy and so again at a later stage I was exempt from carrying out these duties.

All depends on how your wife feels, but I imagine that as soon as she informs her work they will put things in place to make her work as easy as possible for her to carry out. Given the very physical nature of the work, it's not the easiest job to do whilst pregnant but if she looks after herself she will be fine. Any issues she has she should inform her manager ASAP and not hesitate to visit her GP if she needs to.

Regarding the issue of not telling her work until 12 weeks, I totally understand the want to keep the news to herself until then but if anything should happen in work (a fall, a kick in the stomach from a baby etc) her manager should know so that your wife can be protected to a certain extent from any heavy duty work.

Hope this is of some help to you both.

Hi, thanks for your very informative reply!

Her manager is the only other person who knows that she's pregnant. We thought it would be best incase anything happens.
Yes she has to mop and dust etc and no sign of an assesment. Is that usual practice?

Anniebell

Moomat wrote: »

Hi, thanks for your very informative reply!

Her manager is the only other person who knows that she's pregnant. We thought it would be best incase anything happens.
Yes she has to mop and dust etc and no sign of an assesment. Is that usual practice?

Once management know then they will have certain practices in place for pregnant workers. I've only ever worked in one crèche so I can't say if my assessment is standard across them all.

Perhaps they're waiting until she's a bit further on in her pregnancy before altering her duties.

Moomat

Anniebell wrote: »

Once management know then they will have certain practices in place for pregnant workers. I've only ever worked in one crèche so I can't say if my assessment is standard across them all.

Perhaps they're waiting until she's a bit further on in her pregnancy before altering her duties.

They're a great place to work for so I'd say if she wasn't comfortable doing something then they wouldn't make an issue of it. Early days yet anyways!
Thanks for the info!

Anniebell

Moomat wrote: »

They're a great place to work for so I'd say if she wasn't comfortable doing something then they wouldn't make an issue of it. Early days yet anyways!
Thanks for the info!

That's great, hope everything goes well during the pregnancy for her. You're welcome :-)

Chattastrophe!

There's a condition called slapped cheek syndrome which is sometimes spread in creches, it has risks for pregnant women. If there's an outbreak in the creche, she should take time off to make sure she's not exposed to it - I know a creche worker who sadly had a miscarriage after coming in contact with children with the condition.

It's possible she might be able to get her immunity checked, I'm not sure!

Best of luck with it all.

Moomat

Chattastrophe! wrote: »

There's a condition called slapped cheek syndrome which is sometimes spread in creches, it has risks for pregnant women. If there's an outbreak in the creche, she should take time off to make sure she's not exposed to it - I know a creche worker who sadly had a miscarriage after coming in contact with children with the condition.

It's possible she might be able to get her immunity checked, I'm not sure!

Best of luck with it all.

Thanks for that, never heard of it before. That's the type of thing we're interested in finding out about.

Sligo1

Here's a link. Slapped cheek syndrome is caused by a form of the Parvovirus.

http://www.hse.ie/eng/health/az/E/Erythema-infectiosum/Complications-of-slapped-cheek-syndrome.html

Moonbeam

I do not work in a creche but used to deal with them a lot and the health and safety assessment has to be done but 7 weeks is still very early they will probably do it after 12.
The girls worked up until about 36 weeks with out issue but were also facilitated with regards to lifting heavy toddlers and having to bend etc.