The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) answered questions related to the intersection of COVID-19, pregnancy and the workplace, among other workplace questions.

If you’re pregnant, business travel can be difficult, especially if you’re having complications. What are your legal rights and what conversation should you have with your boss?

Does your boss need to allow you time for a doctor’s appointment during the work day? If they don’t, is this discrimination? Can they impose any requirements?

Under federal law, since 2010, women returning from maternity leave who are breastfeeding, nursing parents – are entitled to a clean, private, non-restroom, non-bathroom space in which to express milk; to take a break and to lactate on a similar schedule to what your baby would be doing, nursing, if you were home, two or three times a day. Otherwise, it’s very painful, you can develop mastitis, it may interfere permanently with your ability to breastfeed, and it’s illegal.

There are at least five principle ways that you can be discriminated against at work based on your pregnancy.

This week’s the 40th anniversary of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act – the 1978 federal law designed and enacted to protect women who become pregnant while working, from being fired while pregnant and working.

Here’s one thing all pregnant working women in the United States now have in every State in the Union, and that’s the right not to be treated differently, not to experience hostility, backlash, a diminution, a degradation to the terms or the conditions or the privileges of your employment because of your pregnancy, because of your childbirth, or because of a related medical condition.

If you’re struggling with work-related, pregnancy related challenges while you’re working, just understand that it is illegal even if your employer doesn’t know it. And don’t give up, don’t despair.

Your company must have a conversation with you about your needs when you’re pregnant, and it has to “reasonably accommodate” you – that’s the phrase for having a little flexibility when you are pregnant.

The New York Times reviewed thousands of pages of court and public records and interviewed dozens of women, their lawyers and government officials. A clear pattern emerged. Many of the country’s largest and most prestigious companies still systematically sideline pregnant women. They pass them over for promotions and raises. They fire them when they complain.