Pregnancy Discrimination

I have a son that is nine and a half months old. The time that has gone by since his birth is almost exactly how long it took for him to gestate inside of me before he was born. As a woman, in the later stages of your pregnancy, it will be obvious that you're pregnant - from your swollen belly to your swollen ankles. And sometimes people will treat you differently because you are, in fact, pregnant.

Pregnancy discrimination often conjures up negative connotations in people's minds. When I initially read the words "pregnancy discrimination" in my employment law classes and in my employee handbook, I thought that it entailed women getting fired because they were pregnant. They got too unwieldy or moody for the job. They had to take too much time off from the job because of doctor's appointments.

During my pregnancy, I was at the doctor a lot. In the early stages, I experienced a lot of nausea and vomiting and some spotting, so I would visit the doctor a lot for ultrasounds and to make sure that I wasn't miscarrying. At the end of my pregnancy, the doctors were worried about preeclampsia and diagnosed me as having gestational hypertension, so I was in the office every few days. I never experienced any pregnancy discrimination during this period - my employers never gave me a hard time as far as taking the time to go to doctor's appointments and the whole nine yards. In fact, they were very supportive. Overt pregnancy discrimination was never an issue. It was the passive pregnancy discrimination that really began to get to me.

Because I had to take so much time off, people began to talk. Or at least I thought that they did. I thought that they talked about how I wasn't as dedicated to my profession because I was in the middle of a high risk pregnancy and had to take time off. And I think that they thought that I was coddled because of being pregnant. And that can also be a form of pregnancy discrimination.

As a woman whose pregnancy is fresh in her mind, I would offer the following suggestions for women and their partners who believe that they may be experiencing pregnancy discrimination in their lives:

• Educate yourselves as to the policies that your company has in place with regards to pregnancy in the workplace. If you are in a union, often your union representative will have a lot of information on pregnancy and pregnancy discrimination in the workplace. If you aren't in a union or don't have a union to belong to, it's your responsibility to educate yourself as to your company's policies.
• 
  
• If you believe that you are the target of pregnancy discrimination in your workplace, make sure that you comply with the company policies in challenging any and all challenges to you that you perceive are based upon your pregnancy.
• 
  
• Consult with an attorney that specializes in employment discrimination law. Your local bar associations may have attorney referral hotlines that can assist you in finding an attorney to help you out.

Pregnancy should be a wonderful thing, but isn't always for some people. And sometimes it's because of pregnancy discrimination. It's illegal so don't let it happen to you.