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"On this past Sunday&amp;#x27;s episode of Desperate Housewives (spoiler alert!), Lynette, who is pregnant with twins, is fired. In her boss Carlos&amp;#x27; defense, Lynette did hide her pregnancy from him and take a big promotion and salary bump, knowing she would undoubtedly have to go on maternity leave--but her pregnancy was unplanned, her hubby is unemployed and, HELLO, we&amp;#x27;re in a recession (I feel her anxiety). Were you ever fired or laid off when you were expecting or on maternity leave? When I was eight months pregnant, the start-up magazine I worked on for one year was killed and that meant the entire staff was let go--sans severance. Health benefits would expire at the end of the month, and Cobra for JD and me would cost roughly $1,000 a month (Gulp!). Luckily, I was repurposed to First magazine, where I&amp;#x27;d worked prior to joining the start-up title, and my health insurance remained intact. The entire ordeal made me curious about my rights. What are the laws when it comes to getting laid off while pregnant or on maternity leave? Is being pregnant a full-time job? Well, according to this article published in The New York Times, &amp;quot;it is entirely legal to lay off a pregnant woman or a woman on maternity leave--as long as the employer can make the case that she is being let go for a reason unrelated to her pregnancy.&amp;quot; Still, it&amp;#x27;s hard to prove if women are being let go because of discrepancies unrelated to their pregnancies especially in such a depressed economy (I mean, why PAY a pregnant woman&amp;#x27;s maternity leave when you can fire her and peg it to the nation&amp;#x27;s unemployment rate?). Elizabeth Grossman, a lawyer for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission maintains: &amp;quot;Some employers may be tacitly discriminating against pregnant women and new mothers.&amp;quot; In fact, last year the E.E.O.C reported that the number of pregnancy-based discrimination charges filed was up nearly 50 percent from a decade earlier. I&amp;#x27;m curious if any of you were laid off/fired prior to giving birth or while on your paid maternity leave? How did you feel? Did you take legal action? If your job provided health insurance, did you take advantage of Cobra (which is super-expensive!) or purchase a cheaper plan? Did you immediately start looking for a new dream job? (Try these hair ideas on your next job interview.) About Desperate Housewives: What&amp;#x27;s your opinion of Lynette? Was she wrong to conceal her pregnancy (but do you understand where she was coming from)? Was Carlos wrong to find a sneaky way to fire her? *** If you feel like you&amp;#x27;ve been discriminated against at your place of employment because of your pregnancy, contact WorkLife Law at 800-981-9495. Want to read about what it was like for me to lose my job when I was eight-months-pregnant (it wasn&amp;#x27;t pretty)? Order a copy of my book Rattled! here. *** More Ways to Get Glamour You could win $50,000 just for registering for or logging in to Glamour.com! Sign up for Glamour.com&amp;#x27;s Style Tips of the Week and Beauty Tip of the Day newsletters! Add Glamour to your iGoogle homepage. Follow us on Twitter."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.glamour.com/sex-love-life/blogs/storked/2009/12/on-this-past-sundays-episode>