Signs you are overdoing it.
Being pregnant and working at the same time. Sounds like your body and brain have two jobs to do, your full time job and growing a new life. Both are tiring and I bet most women would wish at some stage during their pregnancies for a more flexible work schedule or some time off from their routine jobs. Most times though, working full time throughout the whole 9 months of your pregnancy is inevitable. What are the signs that you could be overdoing it?
Your health and safety during work is your number one priority. You and your boss need to make sure that your working environment is safe from obstacles like loose cables, and does not intensifies aches, worsen your posture or over-exhaust you. You should avoid any long-distance traveling, tiring activities, heavy lifting and bending. It's not proven whether working long hours can harm your baby or your pregnancy per se, but you should be careful not to overdo it in any case.
I am a person that overdoes it. Up until the lockdown began, I was always managing to pull off a good balance between finishing work on time and achieving good results. Avoiding long hours at work would allow space for all the extra-curricular activities I was trying to stay involved in. Since we started working from home, that has changed along with my work responsibilities. Less staff at work, a heavier workload and my superiors' higher expectations of me, I ended up spending the past 6 months working for over 12 hours a day. Whether this was a big mistake or not I don't know, but I am willing to slow down a bit for the remaining year. I am trying on being more selfish than committed for once and reprioritise my goals, but even this is causing me some sort of anxiety.
There are so many things pregnant women already worry about. At the same time they are busy organising every detail for the newest family member, whilst also dealing with a level of exhaustion they previously didn’t know existed. Some women -myself included- are also so concerned about all their professional work that needs to be completed before they go on maternity leave. And as if pregnancy related stress was not enough, you wind up worrying about finishing up your tasks in time for labor and giving the best possible results -as usual- before the ticking time bomb goes off. You hear comments like 'You should keep that baby inside you a little bit longer' from your superiors and wonder whether this can really be happening to you. Not funny!
Of course you want to tie up all of your loose ends at work, have the house ready for the baby, and make up the time to be totally prepared for the upcoming birth experience, but none of this should be more important than your health. All this anxiety of ours can have an effect on our baby in the womb, so let's try to avoid it as much as we can. There are some steps we can all take to reduce the stress in our lives, to take time to relax, exercise, eat healthy and set ourselves realistic goals each week. Have a look on the below list.
Take frequent 5min breaks during working hours.
Stretch your legs every couple of hours.
Arrange a prenatal massage.
Wear loose clothing & comfortable shoes.
Take a healthy packed lunch & snacks at work.
Learn how to control your breathing.
Share experiences with other pregnant women.
Drink plenty of fluids.
Practice positive thinking.
Stay connected with your baby in the womb.
Exercise if you can.
Appreciate nature.
START BEING MORE SELFISH AND LESS COMMITTED.
