Finding out you’re expecting also comes with a whole variety of things you weren’t expecting. You weren’t expecting that morning sickness can be in the morning, at noon or in the evening, or even last all day. You weren’t expecting your stomach to become public property that any stranger feels they can prod and stroke. And you certainly weren’t expecting those varicose veins in unimaginable places.

Suddenly you find that big knickers and elastic waistbands are a godsend (spoiler alert: you may never stop wearing them) and high heels are kicked to the back of the wardrobe to languish with all the glamorous clothes you won’t wear for another three years, at least. You knew your stomach would swell, but your feet?

For any woman going through pregnancy, life is full of these little surprises, but for teachers they are often magnified. And there are some delightful added extras.

If being on your feet all day isn’t bad enough, being on your feet when they’re aching, swollen and spilling out of your shoes is something else. Luckily there’s a positive looming further down the line: soon, your stomach will grow so big that you won’t be able to see your feet at all.

Your meticulous planning for lessons is now joined by equally zealous planning for trips to the loo (and why, oh why, is it so far away?). How many cups of tea do you have to limit yourself to in the morning to ensure you can last until breaktime? Is it possible to vomit into your handbag without anyone seeing?

The good news is that you are not going through this alone. The bad news is that you have 30 or more pairs of eyes watching you, judging you, asking you all sorts of personal questions. And, of course, for them, the most fascinating and shameful thing of all is that it confirms that you have done it. You’ve had SEX. And recently, too. For most children, it’s almost as bad as finding out that your parents still do it.

Laura May Rowlands is a veteran of two tours of duty on this particular battleground. Her advice? “Answer the questions…embrace the ‘fame’. Own it.”

Those pupils can infringe on your pregnancy in other ways, too. Trying to come up with suitable names is so much worse as a teacher. Most people go through the process of mentally crossing out certain names because of a strong association with someone they once knew. But that list is severely curtailed when you’ve encountered so many different names in your life, especially the ones you’d rather forget. And you are all too familiar with the horrors that children saddled with more imaginative, exotic names go through at school.

All of the above just adds to what is often the overriding emotion of pregnancy: anxiety. It starts as soon as you find out you’re pregnant (spoiler alert: it never really ends). And we tend to suffer without support at first: one in four pregnancies ends in miscarriage, so most women prefer not to reveal their news, especially to their employer, until they are safely past the first trimester.

With Covid-19, that is going to have to change: employers will need to be told as soon as possible to make adjustments.

Covid-19 will also heighten the usual anxieties teachers have regarding their classes: how can you give your best when you’re not feeling your best? What will happen to your pupils when you’re not there? They’re at such a crucial point in their learning. How will they fare?

But here’s the thing: when you’ve had your baby and you’re no longer expecting, there’s something waiting for you that you weren’t expecting: an overwhelming and all-consuming love that makes you forget everything. Yes, even your job.

This article originally appeared in the 3 July 2020 issue under the headline “Big knickers, big worries and big love: pregnancy’s a rollercoaster”