Pregnancy and maternity: risk assessment

This pregnancy risk assessment is suitable for use when an employee tells you she is pregnant or a new mother.

Although you should already be considering risks particular to women who are pregnant or have recently given birth as part of your normal risk assessments, you must conduct an individual risk assessment if a worker tells you she is pregnant, breastfeeding or has given birth in the last six months.

This pregnancy risk assessment template is a table that is designed to guide you through the careful consideration of health and safety for pregnant women and new mothers. To make things easy for you, it is pre-filled with the most common health and safety hazards that can affect pregnant women and new mothers, including slips and trips, chemicals (including everyday cleaning materials), workstation set-up and stress or post-natal depression.

Risk assessments are not just an exercise in box-ticking. To be legally compliant, you must act on your findings. To help you engage with it properly, this pregnancy risk assessment includes:

• guidance notes to make it easy for you to find hazards that are specific to your business;
• suggested actions that you can take to minimise common risks; and
• an action planner to help you track your progress in improving health and safety.

If you employ any women of child-bearing age and there could be particular risks to them in your workplace (almost always the case), you are legally required to consider them in your risk assessments.

Additionally, when you are notified in writing that a worker is pregnant, breastfeeding, or has given birth in the last six months, you must conduct an individual risk assessment. This specific pregnancy risk assessment template will help you to focus on the hazards that could affect pregnant women and new mothers.

If you have five or more employees, the law requires you not only to carry out regular risk assessments, but also keep a written record of them. Even if you have fewer than five employees, it is good practice to keep a copy of your risk assessments anyway.

This template pregnancy risk assessment, once you have filled it in and stored it, is a simple way to make sure you have complied with the law.

For a helpful guide to all aspects of health and safety law for your business, you can download our simple Health and safety annual action plan.

If you want detailed guidance on everything you need to know about risk assessments, including how to do a proper one, see Health and safety risk assessments.

For general risk assessments, you can use Risk assessment for an office or Risk assessment for a shop or other business open to customers.