A tenth of pregnant women feel unwelcome at work

One in 10 women say they are made to feel a burden at their workplace while they were pregnant, according to research.

The survey by baby charity Tommy’s also found that 2 out of five women said they were worried about telling their employer that they were pregnant.

Tommy’s estimates that one million pregnant women are likely to experience discrimination at work over the next five years.

Sign up to our weekly round-up of HR news and guidance

Receive the Personnel Today Direct e-newsletter every Wednesday

Email(Required)

OptOut

From time to time, we will send you emails about selected products, events and services from Personnel Today and OHW+ - but you can choose to opt-out at any time. If you do not wish to receive these emails, please tick this box.

Phone

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

Δ

Jane Brewin, chief executive of Tommy, said good pregnancy management would benefit employers by increasing the return-to-work rate following maternity leave, reinforcing staff loyalty to the organisation and creating a supportive and healthy working atmosphere.

Key facts from the survey:

• 1 in 10 women were made to feel a burden at their workplace whilst they were pregnant
  
• 2 out of 5 women were worried about telling their employer that they were pregnant
  
• 1 in 10 employers had an unsupportive attitude to their employee’s pregnancy
  
• 1 in 10 employers became increasingly less supportive during their employee’s pregnancy
  
• 1 in 6 women blame work-related problems for stressful pregnancies.