In the last two years, the world has drastically changed with the pandemic. We all knew that. Jobs were going remote, schools were being taught online, and work was hard to find for those looking and even harder to keep.

During the pandemic, one woman (who already has an older child) decided she was not going to risk being let go from her job during the pandemic by hiding her new pregnancy from her employer.

Unfortunately, this is a common thing among women in the workplace. There is a law to protect pregnant women from being discriminated against in the workplace, but as with any law, there are gray areas. This article breaks it down into very simple terms, but the problem of pregnancy discrimination in the workplace continues to be an issue.

If you do a simple google search, there are thousands of articles and testimonials from women who were afraid to say they were pregnant in order to get a job, women who hid their pregnancy from their employer, and women who were passed up for employment because they were pregnant. Countless amounts of research have been conducted across the world on Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination and the numbers are sad, but not shocking.

I do not have children. I cannot speak to the struggle that women face when finding employment while pregnant or keeping a job while pregnant. While doing my research for this article, I found way too many stories on the struggle and fear of being fired or passed up for work opportunities, just because the women are pregnant. Pregnancy obviously changes everything in someone's life. Pregnancy also costs money. Some of these women I've read about had families, others were doing it alone. Those that were unfortunately alone during the gestation period were terrified of being let go because some employers think they can't perform their job abilities while pregnant.

The pandemic amplified those fears. Work was being taken away from everyone, and those who had jobs were doing whatever it took to keep them, even lying about carrying a child. Imagine having to go through even more stress by hiding that, because you needed the money for the thing you're hiding.

Here's the link to the full article about one woman hiding her pregnancy from her employer until six months after the baby was born. It's worth the read, and the research on how often this happens.

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