Pregnancy in the Workplace

If you are a business employing any women, you will probably encounter a pregnancy in your work place at some point.

What can you, as a business owner, do to help out your employees, not only by offering good health insurance, but in other ways, too?

Many small businesses become work families, and supporting your pregnant employees is just something you do.

Let's start with health insurance:

Most insurance plans and health benefits will provide good coverage for prenatal care and delivery procedures.

If possible, offer insurance with that good coverage so your employees can maintain a healthy pregnancy, which does start from the very beginning with good prenatal care.

Regularly scheduled doctor visits to keep healthy checks on mom and baby can raise chances of a healthy delivery and baby, while keeping the mom-to-be healthy as well. Health insurance and pregnancy go hand-in-hand, without good benefits, your employees will be paying high rates out of pocket.

Maternity laws:

Pregnant women are protected at work under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act and the Family and Medical Leave Act.

These laws insure that pregnant women can't be discriminated against, and provide time off after the baby is born. Both of these do have stipulations about number of employees for the laws to be in effect and differ a bit by state.

Also, the Family and Medical Act guarantees maternity leave, but not necessarily paid leave. Even if your company doesn't meet the numbers to put these into effect, they are still good guidelines to go by and take into consideration if you can.

In office assistance:

There are other things you can do to make your pregnant employees more comfortable and efficient….

• Offer flexible work hours - Maybe she's having trouble with morning sickness at first and would benefit by coming in later. Be a little flexible, and as long as she's getting the job done without taking advantage, this could help her out a lot, as well as making the time she's there more beneficial to everyone.

• Accommodate any physical activity - If her doctor puts restrictions on her regarding work activities, see if she can switch responsibilities with someone else for the time being. She may not need to do any of this throughout her pregnancy, but if needed, you may want that backup plan in the wings.

• Modified dress code - If you have a professional dress code, you may want to modify it just a bit for your pregnant employees, especially towards the end of their pregnancy. It's tough wearing heels or being on your feet when you're pregnant; take this into consideration.

• Support her with a baby shower - Especially if it's the first pregnancy, allow a baby shower to honor and support her. Whether you're throwing it or just attending, provide the support to offer this.

Pregnancy is an exciting, emotional time, and with good health insurance, support and possible accommodations, you can offer some assistance to your expecting employees.