Originally Posted by Hoping

Hi,

I really feel for you, and I am not sure whether we feel more paranoid or not when pregnant, but I had a very similar experience during the past 3 weeks or so. I had saved up enough holiday to be able to start my maternity leave early, and last Friday should have been my last day in the office (taking August as holiday, and then starting my mat leave on 1st September).

Anyway, I had my mid year appraisal the week before, and it was awful. Really negative and critical which upset me as I work really hard and what was in there had not been put to me in that way before. I put my thoughts down with some questions in an email for my boss, and she basically blanked me for the whole of my last week, and then had a right go at me on Thursday evening. I got in such a state that I could not sleep on Thursday night, and the thought of going in for my last day made me feel terrible. My GP signed me off with stress for 2 weeks. A lady from HR came to see me yesterday to try and see what the company could do to help.

I do feel a lot better than I did a week ago, I think because I am off now and therefore don't have to worry about it. But I know I need to resolve it if I want to go back to work in a years time. I felt a bit like I wasn't sure if I was reacting to things because of being pregnant, or if I was being treated differently because of being pregnant. But whatever it is, you need to make sure that you are taking good care of yourself for LO's sake. I felt guilty that I thought the stress hormones were passing right into baby!

Maybe you should see if you can talk to your boss about how you are feeling? I know that is hard though, because you don't want it to seem like you are playing the pregnancy card. Whatever you decide to do, I hope you sort it out and feel better really soon.