How to announce your pregnancy at work

If your pregnancy requires you to attend more doctor's appointments than a typical pregnancy, you might want to share your pregnancy news earlier with your employer. Doing this can help your boss to better accommodate your schedule.

• Job Responsibilities

If you are a crucial part of a small team in which your absence will be immensely felt, you might want to consider telling your employer earlier than usual. This can be considered a courtesy to your superior and colleagues, as they will have to figure out how to manage the role in your eventual absence.

• Company Policies

You can seek out information from your company's human resources department to find out more about specific company policies regarding pregnancies and maternity leave. You can also reference materials like your employee handbook with helpful information.

• Outline a plan

This lines up with considering your job responsibilities. It can be helpful to create a list of potential solutions for team members or other employees that will be affected by your maternity leave.

• Set a meeting

Once you feel like you have taken all of the necessary preparatory steps for announcing your pregnancy to your office as a whole, you can then schedule an in-person meeting to deliver the news. Avoid doing this via email or other written form, this type of announcement should be in-person.

• Document your announcement

While the official announcement should be done in person, it is also important after having done this to document your announcement in some way. You can do this by sending your employer an official email or letter stating the essentials regarding your maternity leave and any other critical information.