How can I announce pregnancy at work and be sensitive to a member of the team?
(TW - miscarriage) So I’m planning to announce my pregnancy to my work team in a few weeks time if all is well and I want to be sensitive to a member of our team.
We’re quite a close and social team of about 25 and typically whenever there is big news, such as a baby on the way, we announce it when we are all together during one of our team meetings. With flexible working we only have a mandatory meeting in person once a month and the next one is when I will be 14 weeks, taking place in about 2 weeks, and it’s quite typical that pregnancies get announced not long after the 12 week scan and it would be announced at the very end of the day. My manager already knows as I’ve had the worst morning sickness but no one else does.
I want to be sensitive to a member of the team who I know has had previous miscarriages and was then having trouble with IVF. Oddly, we both had two miscarriages, both in the same months and because she’s a bit of an oversharer, we discovered we were both going through the same things and it was nice to be able to share our experiences and be supportive of each other. Last time we were in the office together, she was heading off for a second round of IVF and I was preparing to start that journey myself but then found out a few days later that I got pregnant naturally. I then got so ill with morning sickness I haven’t been back in.
I’m planning to go in next week and I’m hoping to be able to pull her aside and tell her then so she has time to react privately and not be caught off guard by the announcement. She’s the nicest person and is the type that would put on a big smile no matter what, but I want to be considerate to her. There’s of course a chance her last round was successful but another that things might be looking a bit tough for her. I’ll let her know exactly when the announcement will happen in case she’d prefer to excuse herself.
Is this an ok way to go about it and is there anything I can do to make things easier for her?