I have a job that pays some bills and gives me health insurance, but quite honestly if I wasn't pregnant, I would have quit at least two months ago. Basically, regardless of when I do end up leaving to have the baby I have no plans of returning. Maybe to a different department in the same company, but I'm not entirely sure about that.
I am a high risk mama and I literally have twice as many appointments (at least) as the average pregnant lady. I am overweight and have high blood pressure. I'm being monitored by two doctors and everything has been okay so far with the baby and his/her growth and my blood pressure has been well controlled by medication.
I have been having a rough time with morning sickness and getting knocked down by a stomach bug for a couple of weeks and have missed a fair amount of work. My bosses are not pleased with this and think I need to toughen up. That may be the case, and I may look back and think I was being a giant wuss, but right now in the moment I'm just doing the best that I can. I have not worked here long enough to qualify for FMLA but I can take a medical leave of absence or personal leave. With that, I would technically be an employee for up to 38 weeks and would have no changes to health insurance for the first 12 weeks. After that, the health insurance would go away unless I paid into COBRA.
If I'm counting right, I'm one missed day of work away from being fired. As far as I know, I would qualify for unemployment because I have a health condition that would have led me to being fired. We would definitely qualify for food stamps then and although I'm not sure about Medicaid, I would qualify for CHIPS insurance for the rest of my pregnancy so at least prenatal care and delivery would be covered and the baby would be after that.
My question is, do you think it would be better to get fired or to go on medical leave now? I'm due in March, so my insurance would not last until the birth of my baby, but it would get me through the next few months at least. Is having health insurance through my company more important than trying to collect unemployment?
Any thoughts are helpful! Thanks for your time, I totally love this community.




