Pregnancy - when to give up work

If possible, it’s better to divide up your 18 weeks maternity leave (or whatever you are entitled to) so you finish earlier and go back earlier.

Under no circumstances agree to work beyond 36 weeks

These are good reasons for this:

• First babies aren’t always late – in spite of what your friends tell you. From my figures, 50% are late, 25% are born on time and 25% are born early. This means that, if you are working until 38 weeks, it’s quite possible to have your baby the day you are due to leave work. Apart from the obvious lack of preparation this would involve, are you really prepared to risk your waters breaking during a meeting or when you are seeing a client?
• The baby you are carrying is very important to you. This goes without saying. Although she hasn’t been born, she’s still very much there and you want to give her the best start. She’s absolutely dependent on you now, and that means she needs you to slow down and take a rest during the day.
• Giving up work and having a baby are both major life events. They’re potential sources of stress and, as such, can increase the risk of depression. It doesn’t take a genius to see that it’s sensible to try and separate your two life events by more than a week or so.
• Your baby needs you to take a rest during the day, preferably from 28 weeks onwards. When you lie down, the blood supply to the placenta is increased, which means your baby receives more nutrition. This in turn means she is more likely to grow (you may have noticed how dramatically your baby grows when you go on holiday), which is good news for your baby. It is unlikely that your place of work will be equipped with a bed to enable you to do this, which is another reason for not working beyond 34 weeks. Incidentally, most obstetricians will put mothers on bed rest if their baby is small.