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Kristin- I thought I was headed for a similar situation with my employer as well and also live in Illinois so I checked the situation out. You need to check your work policies. Most employers require their employees to work for them for one year before they qualify for the Family Medical Leave Act which covers pregnancy rights. Was the time you took off approved by your employer? Did you qualify for short-term disability during that time (again, this usually kicks in 3 months after employment date). Keep a record of anything that your employer approved for you. If you're thinking of suing, unfortunately, the only thing you can really use against your employer is if you were discriminated against because you were pregnant. Have any other employees been in similar situations and not been terminated? Were you treated any differently because you were pregnant? Doc_ment everything! You should also still be eligible for COBRA health insurance despite losing your job so get on that right away. And as far as I know, unless you quit or walked away from your job on your own, you ARE qualified for unemployment. So keep it at, they shouldn't have a leg to stand on with that and are probably just trying to intimidate you. Finally, check around on the internet for the state of Illinois policies on pregnancy discrimination. Illinois laws are pretty loose in general toward pregnancy and tend to favor the employer, but that doesn't mean there aren't any loop holes. Hope this information helps and remember that the most important thing is the health of your baby, so do anything you can to keep your stress level down (I know- easier said then done). Best of luck to you and your baby!!

If you don't have a job and you don't have health insurance, you should find out if you're now eligible for Medicaid, because you're going to have to have some sort of medical coverage. You could also try getting another job, at least until your baby is born, but it sounds like maybe you're not up to working while you're pregnant, just from the list of problems you've had in the past few months. You might be able to do temp work...just an idea.

Temping definitely something you should look into.

Kristin, in addition to applying for Medicaid, it's also worth trying to get financial help through the hospital where you received your care. If you qualify (which it sounds like you do), the costs, in many cases, are covered 100%. Check with the billing office at the hospital.

You should look at the OSHA laws in your state. They should also be able to provide you free counseling about your situation and offer advice.

Did your place of work have a probationary period? If you were fired before the ending of the probationary period I really dont think they have to have a great reason to fire you. But as an office manager I probably would have let you go also. I dont mean to be mean but I have to make sure my business is run properly.Now if it was after the 90 probationary period that we have then if you brought in medical slips/excuses then i would not have fired you.

Similiar instance happened to me. I was a stellar a__sociates for 13 years with a huge corporation. I gave birth and suffer from postpartum depression. Immediately after the company found out I was suffering postpartum depression I was terminated 24 days later. They as well denied my unemployment. I fought it and won. The best thing I did was keep all doc_mentation. (performance reviews, emails, copies of the database showing performance across the board) I also kept a notebook where I listed the dates and times of everything and anything that was ever said to me. Another friend of mine fought the denial of unemployment and won. It doesn't appear to be that hard to fight it. However, I must say that I also had two lawyers and a witness to argue the reason I was terminated. You have to believe that you were not in the wrong and you conducted your job duties as requested. As far as legal, it seems as though some companies play right on the edge of legal... Office bullying maybe. I'm still in the process of further legal action. The best thing to do is to find a lawyer that will work for you on a contingency... Sorry to hear about your story. It really sucks when you feel you've been singled out for being a woman.

Do you know a lawyer you could contact? They'd be able to help better with all the legality specifics.