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I am about to start my first semester, teaching as a tenure track professor. I’m in the U.S. I also recently found out that I was expecting my third child due mid April. Our spring semester ends at the end of April going into the first week of May.

I am very nervous about telling my department head that I am pregnant, primarily because I am the only woman in the department, there are generational differences, and racial and ethnic differences (he’s an older white man and I’m a younger Black woman). He also doesn’t have children and isn’t the biggest fan of children.

I would like some advice on how to break this to him. Additionally, strategies on handling the last two weeks of the spring semester. I would like to go online and asynchronous. I feel like this would inconvenience my colleagues the least Compared to having them take over for my classes for the last two weeks.

My university does have maternity leave even if you haven’t been there for a full year. I would get six weeks but I might not need this considering I am on a nine month contract.

Thanks in advance!

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    If your due date is April 15, there is a 17% chance the birth will happen in March. Plan for that too. Also plan for a period of disability before the birth.
    – Anonymous Physicist
    Commented Aug 11 at 13:51
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    Six weeks is a very meager amount of maternity leave. Insist on getting the whole six weeks, no matter what time of year the birth is.
    – Anonymous Physicist
    Commented Aug 11 at 13:53
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    A few thoughts if that's your real name, you might consider changing it. Second, if you are due in April, this is still very early. Seems a little too early to bring it up in the event of a miscarriage. Finally, the end of the semester seems like a good time to be out. Write a good test that a colleague can grade, maybe prerecord a few lectures, instead of having to have a colleague teach half your class.
    – Azor Ahai -him-
    Commented Aug 11 at 17:08
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    If you haven't already, you may want to meet with someone in HR, to make sure you are clear on all the details of the leave policy, before talking to your chair.
    – Nate Eldredge
    Commented Aug 11 at 21:18
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    nine month contract - in two very different ways :-)
    – manassehkatz-Moving 2 Codidact
    Commented Aug 12 at 3:34

4 Answers 4

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There shouldn't need to be a strategy. It isn't a game. It is a right you have as a person and it doesn't depend on any lack of chauvinism or racism or sexism or... by your department head.

Tell him of your expected due date. That should be the end of the story. If he can't deal with it, then he can't do his job. At least he has time to plan to cover you and you can help in that. It is much easier than a case in which someone suddenly has a health issue that demands quick action that may not be planned for.

Congratulations. Your life comes first, including your right to have a family and be respected for it.

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Break it to him early (and take your full leave entitlement)

There is no particular strategy you need in this situation, save for the fact that it is best to give a much notice as possible. Agonising over how to break the news to your Department Head in the optimal way is likely to delay this information, and so it is a net negative. Tell your Department Head about your pregnancy as soon as possible to ensure that the Department has as much time as possible to adapt to your leave.

I suppose it is reasonable to be nervous about how a person might react to your news, but leave is leave --- it is a legal entitlement in your employment contract. Take all six weeks of your leave and do not make the mistake of feeling pressure to eschew your leave in order to make things easier on your colleagues. (If anything, put pressure on yourself not to short-change your new baby.) The fact that you are developing a transition plan is good, and your suggestions sound reasonable to me. Discuss them with other relevant academics to see the best way to conduct hand-over of your duties and transition into your leave.

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I cannot imagine a US university that would not have very clear procedures for handling a faculty member having to go on maternity leave in the middle of a semester. Department chairs handle all kinds of strange and difficult business, but this situation should be very straightforward for your chair to handle, in coordination with the relevant administrative/HR units on campus.

I agree with @Buffy that it should not be up to you to devise a strategy for handling the last weeks of the semester. Your department should offer you guidance how to handle this. They may or may not think that asynchronous teaching is an acceptable or ideal solution.

If the chair is bigoted towards you due to your race, sex, or pregnancy status, that is a very serious matter. It’s hard to offer generic advice given that you have not yet suffered any discrimination but are merely fearful of becoming a potential victim of discrimination, but if you have any concerns that you are being mistreated over your pregnancy, I’d suggest consulting an attorney.

In terms of what to do: talk to either the department chair or an HR person on your campus. I don’t think anyone would expect you to initiate this discussion as soon as you learn about the pregnancy, but giving the department at least a few months to plan for your going on leave would probably be considered reasonable and appropriate.

Last but not least: congratulations!

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    Your profile says you work for a very privileged university. Not all universities have staff to update their policies. Not all have functioning HR departments.
    – Anonymous Physicist
    Commented Aug 12 at 2:56
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    @AnonymousPhysicist I said: "I cannot imagine a US university that would not have very clear procedures for handling a faculty member having to go on maternity leave in the middle of a semester." Are you disagreeing with this statement? To be clear, I can imagine a university that wouldn't offer good maternity leave benefits, but even at such a place I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be fazed about how to deal with a faculty member giving birth.
    – Dan Romik
    Commented Aug 12 at 5:31
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    @DanRomik Sadly I think it's far from uncommon for universities to be downright backwards when it comes to accommodating pregnant faculty members appropriately. While it's better than it once was, sexism is still very much entrenched in the system.
    – Greg Martin
    Commented Aug 12 at 6:39
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    @GregMartin I think you missed the point of my earlier clarification. There are two separate issues here: 1. whether the university offers good maternity benefits such as paid leave or other accommodations for faculty members after childbirth. I can see how some universities may not do that. 2. the separate issue of whether the uni will be confused about how to handle a faculty member going on (paid or unpaid) maternity leave. What I said was that I can't imagine a university not knowing how to handle that situation. That's not at odds with being "backwards" in the sense you're referring to.
    – Dan Romik
    Commented Aug 12 at 8:30
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    @GregMartin - the department chair may be clueless, but I'm sure that the university HR policies have dealt with any number of women employees (not just professors).
    – Jon Custer
    Commented Aug 12 at 18:19
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You didn't mention your teaching load, but maybe there is some flexibility there? In exchange for a light or no load in the spring, agree to another coarse in the fall or more coarses next year?

At some schools/departments you aren't expected to teach your first semester, maybe you can move that to your second semester?

A lighter teaching load in the spring won't solve all your problems, but it will help.

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