Our Pregnancy Announcement

We publicly announced our pregnancy today, 22 weeks along, which is quite late to announce, especially considering we only told out team at Tend at the 18 week mark.

We decided to use this experience to not only tell our story, but share some insight on how we went about sharing the news with our team.

How far along are you in your pregnancy? 

Into week 22

How far along were you when you told your team at Tend? 

At about 18 weeks, we literally waited for as long as we could while navigating long flowing dresses and oversized t shirts.

Why did you wait so long before announcing your pregnancy at work? 

Because for me, being pregnant doesn’t necessarily mean that we have a baby at the end of it. Having had a stillborn at 20 weeks and a late pregnancy loss at 17 weeks has meant that we take the pregnancy hour by hour and day by day. There’s no big “gender reveal” or that normal excitement around having another child until we pass some of the key milestones. Which we have now.

How did you announce it? 
A slack notification to our team telling them I hadn’t just had too much fish and chips on holiday .

What’s your approach with announcing pregnancy on social media? 

Well other than this, we aren’t really announcing it. I guess some people might notice the bump but if they don’t, in just over 4 months’ time we will have another little one in our family photos – well here’s to hoping anyway.

Do you have a plan on when you will begin maternity leave or do you just keep going until you can’t anymore? 

I’ve worked right up to the last week but I don’t necessarily recommend this. I do think you need to be kind to yourself and slow down to prepare yourself for the baby. This time, I’m hoping to be a little more flexible as I am working from home more nowadays, which is one of the post lockdown benefits.

What’s the hardest part about announcing pregnancy to your workplace? 

It really depends on who you are, your career ambition and your workplace. I know many of my friends who were so excited to announce they were pregnant and able to finish off at work while others who have been very driven by their career have felt conflicted at what this has meant for them. It’s important to understand what your long-term goals are and also to be flexible as this might change when you have a little human who is completely reliant on you.

What tips can you give around announcing your pregnancy to your work?  

I think it’s always good to speak to your manager first rather than your work colleagues, you never know what can come out through the rumour mill. In our instance, James and I told one of our Co-Founders Josh first, then the leadership team and then the wider team. We also sent our board an email in advance of these discussions, although we’d told Theresa who is very close to us before this email went out.