Working

Don’t worry, my mum worked in an old folks home and was lifting the old people on her own during all 5 of her successful pregnancies. Don’t get me wrong she struggled but old people are ALOT heavier than babies and she managed up until she went into labour (she started her maternity the day she went into labour with all of her pregnancies) she also had multiple losses. Your work should do risk assessments at different stages through your pregnancy (although I found my workplace never did them on time) they’ll access your working environment against the hns guide and make changes where needed and tell you not to do things that it says you shouldn’t do

Have they done a risk assessment for you? It’s so normal to worry and you should only do what you’re comfortable with, just because other people lift heavy and are alright doesn’t mean that you can take that risk especially if you’ve had losses before. With bending and lifting just make sure you’re bending with your knees and not with your back which can cause injury, speak to your midwife and maybe they can put your mind at ease ?

@Rahila no they haven’t! I was off work my whole first trimester because of sickness, and I’ve been back 2 weeks and still not done it 🙃 it’s ridiculous! But yeah I’m deffo only doing certain things that I know I can do comfortably! My only issue is I just feel sick a lot, or just run down and exhausted and want to sleep 😭

I don't think you need to worry about lifting babies and especially bending down, these are very normal everyday activities, babies are pretty light, just think how all second and third time mothers have had go lift their toddlers and older children while pregnant 😊 I used to lift heavy weights at the gym the first 12 weeks of my pregnancy and stopped mostly because belly was getting in the way and I had less energy/also was a bit shy to go with an obvious bump as stupid as it sounds, not because I was worried about baby's well being. All down to what's normal and usual for your body, but like I said babies are small and if they were dangerous to lift there'd be no second and third time mums. And like someone above said just make sure you bend with your knees and not your back, same when lifting, keep back straight and squeeze up using legs and bum.

I work in a nursery and had a bad back before pregnancy but being pregnant and lifting made it worse I complained that I was in agony crying every night and now I’ve got a risk assessment I’m not allowed to lift or do nappies cos of lifting been not doing it for 3 weeks and back is so much better, I’m 17 weeks now, I work with under 2s and some are quite heavy, tell your employer you can’t as you’re in pain and it’s affecting you, they have to honour your decision xxx

You need to have a risk assessment, tell them your midwife said or you’ll end up taking time off with a bad back, that’s why my company stopped me altogether cos they don’t want me to have time off with a bad back, it’s not worth it.. protect yourself and your little baba you guys come first xxx

@Kalina my midwife has advised me to avoid it due to my 2 losses last year and has said to do minimal light duties etc! And all the babies in baby room in my nursery are SO big 😭 some of the 2 year olds are lighter than them 😭😭 it’s insane, they’re like bodybuilder babies