Quite. I'm in the UK and all my colleagues who were pregnant went on maternity leave a couple of weeks before their due date. They were not expected to work during delivery

Oh and a maternity leave that is over after a whole month! Wow! At the same time in Germany I had 14 months of parental leave to share with my husband. And I even got 2/3 of my compensation during this whole time. But sure - let's sacrifice the only things that matter in life like time with newborns and family in general, or health, or mental health to make billioners earn even more. And if you don't sacrifice everything you're actively mobbed. Yey!

It seems some people think having a baby and a poop is the same thing... just hold it in til after the meeting? Very silly. Maybe the manager thought it would be a delivery by stork?

We don't know if the op even is American. And second MANY states in the US DO allow pregnant people time off well before they're due.

Our health insurance is most often tied to our employment. If you lose your job...you've probably seen how much it costs. Keeps us in a cage.

Not all American work places are like that. In fact, while I of course don't have any statistics to back it up (I doubt they even exist), I believe there's only a small percentage theatare like the situation in this story.

From my experience this is a one off case because US labor laws frown on this . and typically so do companies because that is a lawsuit waiting to happen and that ladies boss is a HUGE liability. When I had my house fire and my son was injured i was at work when the fire broke out . my son was taken by ambulance to the hospital for evaluation of 2nd degree burns . My boss drove me to the hospital to meet my son . They gave me any time off i needed to take care of business and it was paid. I am greatful for that. Not all companies are like the one in this post . i have never had a bad experience with with any company I have worked for .

I guess it depends on the business too : France has a pretty good protection for workers in general. But if you are not from the company herself but from a contractor you are basically a fuse. When it breaks you keep your pay and you employment... If you are ready to move anywhere in the country for the next job.

Even some of my not-that-great bosses would have offered a ride. At least. The worst of all this is, that, on a global scale, we're competing against each other, and the opponents on our level never had rights to the amount we had, that could be taken away from them, and, as framing is everything - "look at those greedy obnoxious Westeners! They demand things we can't even dream of!" - instead, we should emulate what the higher ups do - organize ourselves, invest in framing and make our rights respected. If only ... how great is the share of people in a union around her job? Or anywhere, really? You know, in all the times that progress was made that was advantagous for the working class, the majority were. A story from a Grandma on that regard ... after Dad told his kids that when he was young, some christmases you got a bike, and some, just a pack of panties or socks, "You never knew", and all those unionizing, they'd "have laughed at". Kid went to Grandma for her take on it. "The bicycle? Yeah, well, that was the year we finally got a union at your Grandpa's company, and therefore, decent wages, and therefore, we were able to get him that bike...". Yeah, all those fuzzy weird union shenenigans ... are what seperates us from slavery. The less unionized workers are, the closer they are to slavery, and to some extent, that's deserved, even. It's frustrating how an agency meant, founded and run to benefit you and your fellows is somehow seen as a bunch of work-shy weirdos eager to ruin everything at them's hands...

"and the Pursuit of Happiness" - seems like a lot of folks in the US has forgotten that part.

Depends.. i was extremely fatigued early in my pregnacy. I worked an outdoor job in full sun during summer. Asked my Boss if i could work indoors doing paperwork, he also told me to not whine and just suck it up

American white males unfortunately run this country and they are definitely toxic with a LOT of psychological disorders. Their egos are so fragile and they are so in’s about their masculinity that they need to be arrogant, selfish psychopaths and sociopaths. It’s been inbred in them for multiple generations.

The one who wrote to her to tough it out "like their wife did during her pregnancy" - did the wife also "tough it out" during labour?