A positive pregnancy test can be an exciting and scary thing–especially if you’re in the military! Being a pregnant Soldier comes with its own challenges and learning curves not only for the Army Mama herself, but it seems to be an anomaly for those around her each time it happens.
I’ll give you a breakdown of the most common obstacles, entitlements, and events you should be developing a plan for once you get that big fat positive.
Telling your chain of command
When I found out that I was pregnant for the second time, I did not want to tell anybody because I didn’t want to
jinx it. My first pregnancy ended in miscarriage, better classified as a chemical pregnancy. After that I had read that most women experience chemical pregnancies and unfortunately miscarriages are more common than we like to talk about.
For this reason alone, I was very hesitant to tell my supervisor of my pregnancy. However, it is important to do this early so that you’re looking out for the health and welfare of your child.
Depending on your personality type and those you work with will dictate how you reveal your pregnancy.
With my second child, I brought in donuts for my staff and wrote on the box, “I donut know how else to tell you that I’m expecting baby #2.” It’s an ice breaker and everyone usually loves donuts.
You can find lots of cute pregnancy reveal ideas on Pinterest. Just click on the picture of donuts and it will take you to over 45 different pregnancy announcement ideas.
And I don’t care if you work with a bunch of men, it’ll soften the blow if you pair it with food.
I’ve even seen ones where a pregnant woman brought in pizzas and wrote, “Special Delivery! New addition expected __input due date__”. Now who doesn’t like pizza?
The utter confusion on how to lead a pregnant Soldier
Any time a female Soldier gets pregnant, males act brand new to the biological fact that we can be incubators for human life.
Some leadership/peers will treat you like you’re broken or useless during pregnancy. Others will assume you’re using pregnancy as an excuse to get out of work–this response stings more when it comes from another Army Mama.
The best is when your leadership and peers are super supportive. This will present itself in many ways. Leaders who prior plan how they’re going to tailor your duties and obligations that still treat you as an asset while mitigating any safety risks.
The point is, you will need to brace yourself for a hodge podge of reactions to your pregnancy, especially once your stomach begins to grow.
What your pregnancy profile will entail
Although everyone’s pregnancy is different, some common workplace limitations include (and this applies to ALL Army components):
- Prevention of exposure to fuel, hazardous chemicals, solvent vapors, metal dust, and excessive vibrations (LMTV rides, etc)
- Soldiers that are pregnant or trying to become pregnant are authorized to wear the OCP without permethrin
- Exemption from wearing load bearing gear
- Exemptions at 20 weeks
- standing at parade rest/position of attention for longer than 14 minutes
- Swimming qualifications, drown proofing, field duty, and weapons training
- riding/driving in or performing PMCS on military vehicles larger than light medium tactical vehicles
- Exemptions/Provisions after 28 weeks
- Soldier must be provided a 15 minute rest period every 2 hours
- Duty week not to exceed 40 hours and no more than 8 hours in one work day (no CQ/Staff duty). This does include hours at P3T/PT, but does not include travel time to and from PT or personal hygiene.
While you might run into Army Mamas who did not adhere to these types of workplace limitations during their pregnancies, that really shouldn’t be considered the standard for pregnant Soldiers.
You are growing another human being in your body and it’s better to take full advantage of the rights that we have been afforded thus far in the Army. Let’s just say that the Army has a lot of work to do when it comes to supporting Army Mamas that have lost their little ones much too soon.
However, I do foresee a lot of changes in the near future to make it easier for us Army Mamas be able to raise our families and have successful careers in the military.
High Risk Pregnancies
If you are experiencing a high risk pregnancy, then you will need confirmation from your PCM and a more detailed profile of workplace limitations. Your Commander should work with your medical personnel to make a determination on how they can make the best accommodations for your pregnancy while still making sure you continue to be an asset to the Army.
Do not try to prove your worth if you are considered high risk. Take a step back and think of your baby. Your baby gains nothing from you trying to show your worth, except causing potential damage to them or yourself in the process.
Tricare
Tricare will cover the cost of a breast pump and supplies if you choose to breastfeed. If you’re interested in learning more on how to get a breast pump with supplies through your insurance, you can read my article Pumping Bag Necessities.
I used an amazing company called Aeroflow Breast Pumps for both of my pregnancies that really took care of all the legwork for me. One less stressor on this Army Mama.
If you have Tricare Reserve Select, then you’ll need to notify them that you’re pregnant. They have a maternity bundle that captures all the costs of prenatal/postpartum care before you start all your mandatory check-ups. That way you’re not constantly pulling out your wallet for copays during each visit.
Preparing for Delivery
Although it will be a while before you deliver, you might want to start thinking about what kind of delivery you would like.
Home delivery? Hospital? or even travelling back to your HOR to deliver with your family if you’re a single mother or your spouse is deployed.
For each of my births, I booked a flight for my mother to come help out during the first month of postpartum. Not everyone has that luxury, but I highly recommend phoning a close relative if it is an option for you.
The active component and most recently National Guard and Reserves gets paid leave!
Before January 2021, Army Mamas would have to coordinate make up drills with their CoC (if their command was supportive enough). But now, Army Mamas in the NG/Reserves get 12 weeks of paid maternity leave.
Your Readiness NCO will code you “N” so that you can still receive retirement points (or a “good year”). There is also a pay packet process that may vary by state. So I encourage you to get with your RNCO to send an inquiry up through finance to ensure you and other Army Mamas get familiar with the process.
Maternity Uniforms
If you’re active duty, CIF should provide 3 sets of maternity uniforms when you provide your pregnancy profile. You can also do a one for one swap when you belly starts to grow as you get further along.
Now if you’re Guard/Reserves, then you can order maternity uniforms through your supply sergeant.
Keep in mind that you will need to turn those uniforms back in at the end of your pregnancy.
My boyfriend (a supply sergeant) asked me the other day what I did with my maternity ACUs and I gave the biggest shoulder shrug in response.
I guess I’ll look forward to paying back that expense. Whoops.
Also expect to look like you’re wearing a tent. . . Almost forgot to leave that part out.
P3T
When you find out that you are pregnant and you inform your chain of command, you’ll then enroll in the Pregnancy Postpartum Physical Training program.
The intent behind this program is to conduct safe and effective physical training for the duration of your prenatal and postpartum periods. I’ve heard mixed reviews about this program.
One of our medics said that he was assigned as a Zumba instructor for a week for the P3T program, so I’m a little weary of it especially since I’ve been forced to do PRT during my time in the military.
However, it does offer potential benefits for maintaining physical fitness and assistance in rebuilding the deep core muscles that stretch out incredibly during pregnancy.
Keeping your fitness up during pregnancy (of course, only if your body is capable of doing so) is so integral to recovery from your delivery.
More research is coming out on the benefits of working out during pregnancy, which will hopefully lead to less postpartum issues (diastasis recti, pelvic floor dysfunction, incontinence, etc).
Not to mention, proper recovery and easing back into your regular workout routine that won’t exacerbate your condition (ahem, usually pelvic floor dysfunction). If you’re looking for safe, yet effective workouts to get you back in the swing of things, then stay tuned for my article on top postpartum recovery workout routines.
Developing a Family Care Plan
You will need to develop a family care plan and start thinking about childcare, like yesterday!
Contact your local CYS (Children and Youth Services) to start the enrollment process. You’ll go to MilitaryChildcare.com to get on the waitlist for the Child Daycare Center (CDC) on post.
At that point, I’d ask for an estimate on whether or not your child will be able to receive care on post by the time you return to work. If that is not an option, then you might want to start researching off post childcare.
Child Care Aware can assist in covering the cost of childcare fees as long as the daycare is enrolled in the program. You’ll need to get a statement of non-availability along with other required documents for off post childcare.
For your family care plan, start asking yourself these basic questions:
- Who will care for my child if they become ill and daycare sends them home?
- Who will care for my child if I get a call in the early/late hours of the day to go into work outside of regular CDC/daycare hours?
- Who will care for my child if I deploy/go TDY/go to the field?
If you’re dual military or a single Army Mama, it makes coming up with a crisp and clean Family Care Plan very challenging. It’s important to have that honest discussion with your spouse and/or your current leadership.
Amidst the pandemic, it has made it even more challenging for us Army Mamas, because we are the ones who ultimately end up answering the call from school/daycare at the first sign of a sniffle to come pick up our kid(s). And I’ve seen way too many active duty commands initiate chapters for their postpartum Soldiers for this asinine reason.
Self advocacy
Self advocacy is probably the single most important thing you can do for you and your baby.
It is hard being pregnant in a male dominated world. Most male Soldiers who enjoy families have the luxury of having a civilian spouse. A civilian spouse that can attend to their children when they are sick, when their father is deployed/TDY/at an FTX. Their family care plan is their spouse and it is pretty air tight.
This leads to a disconnect when “taking care” of Army Mamas. They don’t understand because they haven’t experience the struggle of finding last minute care. They’ve never had to resort to facebook babysitter groups or care.com and hope that the person watching their child is actually taking care of them.
Although it shouldn’t be our job to educate our leaders on how to lead Army Mamas, the burden has fallen on us. We must exercise our prenatal/postpartum rights so that it becomes normalized throughout the organization.
When you find out that you’re pregnant, check out AR 635-200 Chapter 8. It will detail voluntary/involuntary separation due to pregnancy.
If you hit CTRL F and search for “pregnancy counseling”, that will show you everything that your Commander must counsel you on in regards to prenatal and postpartum requirements on your part and their part.
My advice is to become smart on all your prenatal/postpartum rights. Heck, keep a few copies of each policy on hand so that you can pass them out like candy to every NCO/Officer that tries to get in the way of an Army Mama just trying to take care of herself and her child.
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