High School teachers around the world have had to learn to deal with their home and school life separately. However, when the line between home and school life blurs, how do teachers balance both worlds? When a teacher becomes pregnant, that line becomes almost non-existent.
By itself, pregnancy comes with a lot of mental and physical weight. Teachers have to figure out how to do their jobs efficiently while also having to deal with the countless hardships that come with birthing a child.
German and French teacher Mrs. Joanna Allen is late into the primary trimester of her first pregnancy. She is no stranger to the variety of consequences that come with being a new mother.
“Getting into the routine of school at the beginning of the year worsened my morning sickness and memory loss,” Allen says. “Since being pregnant, the extra exhaustion and fatigue make it hard to move around and keep class fun.”
Frau Allen is also a type 1 diabetic. Even before pregnancy, Frau Allen would have to tend to her blood sugar levels during class as needed.
Allen explains, “If my blood sugar goes too low during class, it could be a threat to me and my baby.”
Spanish teacher Jessica Yandun was pregnant in the 2017-2018 and 2019-2020 school years. With her experience, she’s able to reflect on the major highs and lows of pregnancy.
“In teaching, there is no separation between home and school life,” Yandun says.
For Yandun, students were very understanding and patient during her pregnancies. Her main struggle was handling the out-of-class work she had to do.
In order to overcome this, she created a variety of strategies, one which included, “doing more work at school during my free periods so I don’t have to do it at home.”
Students have a lot of power when it comes to influencing teachers’ lives. In regards to what students can do to help a pregnancy go smoothly, Allen says, “Overall, my students have been nothing but nice so far. Just listen and try to be respectful.”
Mrs. Yandun also had great experiences with students while she was carrying and gave some advice to future pregnant teachers:
“Patience is always key.”
I'm a senior at OHS and I'm a first-year staff reporter/video editor.
