Pregnancy tips Pregnancy: Expecting At Work

I quite my corporate pressure cooker job years before I finally had my daughter so I didn't have to deal with negotiating maternity leave, etc. However, here is a good article on the subject:

A GUIDE FOR THE EXPECTANT EXECUTIVE For a woman manager, pregnancy means confronting the boss's fears, co-workers' stereotypes, and her own uncertainties (money.cnn.com/fortune)

From the article:

When and how to tell your boss? How to keep presenting a professional appearance, as the phrase goes, so much so as to ward off the loutish near-strangers in the office who -- and working women swear this really happens to them -- come up to you with a solicitous smile, pat your stomach, and say, ''How's the baby?'' (Funny, they never seem to do this to old Fred, the senior division manager who has put on a few pounds recently.) Begin by understanding what you're up against. -- The boss's big fear. When the company, as represented by your boss, finally gets the news, its worst-nightmare scenario will take the following form, approximately: You and he negotiate a period of maternity leave, say three months. A few weeks before your scheduled return, you call him to report that there have been some complications -- you haven't regained your old pep, the baby's been sick -- and you need another couple of months off. He grudgingly goes along, scrambling to make arrangements to cover for you in your absence. This only to have you call again toward the end of that period, pleading for just another month or two. Tight-lipped, he assents, setting an absolute final deadline for your return. Mere days before that date, you telephone to tell him you're quitting. While study after study indicates most new mothers do go back to their jobs, and fairly quickly, such double dealing occurs enough to make employers wary. ''Most corporate health insurance plans force women to lie,'' argues Martha Clark Briley, head of Prudential Power Funding Associates investment group and the mother of 9-year-old twins. ''They can keep their coverage only if they continue on a leave of absence.'' The experts note, too, that the U.S. is the only industrialized Western country without a law guaranteeing women a job with their company when they return from maternity leave. And sometimes mothers-to-be set off with every intention of returning, then find at the last minute that their child-care arrangements have fallen through -- a problem particularly for women in lower- paid jobs. -- The big stereotype. ''It's very rare to find somebody who gets up in the morning, looks in the mirror, and says, 'Today I'm going to discriminate against women -- or pregnant women,' '' observes DePaul