This was in the days when the most liberal of university authorities would send you down for the remainder of the year if you got pregnant, prepared to allow you back on the assumption that the baby had been adopted. Many educational establishments simply sent you packing altogether.
If I remember rightly (the details can be checked, but I am relying on memory here) you were entitled to 3 months maternity leave with some kind of pay, with a possibility of an extra 3 unpaid.
There was however a very significant catch: you had to stop working at 7 months. The medics were unbending on this one – to carry on working full time was dangerous to the health of both mother & baby. This view no doubt dated back to the days when only working class women in manual jobs, which might expose them to all sorts of dangerous substances or practices, would dream of working at all while pregnant. There was also a question of taste & decency – somehow it wasn’t quite right to have a heavily pregnant woman around – where are you supposed to look? No proud display of bumps then, keep it decently hidden behind a voluminous smock!
We fought & won that one, but still we, the medical professions, the breast feeding brigade, or just fashion, find ways to try to govern how women behave during or immediately after - & sometimes even well before – they get pregnant. Purely in the best interests of themselves & the baby, you understand.
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