Fliexibility in work for expectant women & mothers of kids

I have been married for a couple of years now, and I am thinking about trying for kids in some months after discussing with my hubby..I just wanted to take your inputs as to how ladies can manage their work along with family responsibilities..my work profile is like-long working hours, no option of working from home ,working in shifts..sometimes on weekend/ holiday also they ask us to work.occasionally need to travel to client locations and have meetings/workshops with clients also ..I wanted to get the following inputs from working ladies..

1. suppose a female employee becomes pregnant, how soon should she inform boss/colleagues?
within first month or after completion of 3 months?
2. First 3 months preg ladies will have lot of nausea vomiting etc..and they have to be extra careful during the first trimester..so they may not be able to work long hours, may have to leave early of they r not feeling good..may have to take leaves and permissions for doctor checkups, may require flexible timings, wfh etc..
suppose no flexibilities are usually given, but a pregnant woman requests, will it be given? Are bosses usually understanding about these issues ( Female bosses will understand, but male bosses?)
3. Suppose a lady working in a project goes on maternity leave, will she be put on bench once she starts her maternity leave? will she get a new project after coming back from M.L? Or will she be forced to contnue in same project?
4. Do bosses give flexibilities to ladies who have had babies? atleast for first 2-3 years?
5. Can a pregnant woman/new mom ask to be excused from working in late shifts/working outside office hrs/travelling to client location?As its really difficult to manage these things during pregnancy/after having baby...

please provide your inputs..
Any personal experiences in dealing with this scenario would be really helpful to me..

My friend has faced same problem..she is unable to deal with this work pressure and zero flexibility after having kid, she has taken a break.

I want to have a healthy baby, I also want to work without compromising my health..Pls advice.

 

thanks armummy for your prompt reply...

I am mostly troubled due to late night shifts and calls..Quite often I am expected to take conference calls from clients , attend online meetings & work overnight for atleast 3-4 hours on urgent issues on requirement basis late in the night (like 10 pm-1.30 am for eg)even after coming back home.. due to difference in timezones of clients etc..and also go to office the next day..There also I have to work for full 9-10 hours to follow up the issues and then come home n do house work..I feel extremely tired as I get 4-5 hours of sleep only.

I feel sick & tired always..If I am expecting a baby can I ask to be excused from these late night work? As this is not something which i alone can handle, there are many people for that...Presently all people in the team are working on issues outside of office hours and also spending long hrs in office..but all others in the team are bachelors, they are easily managing..But it would not be practical for pregnant ladies or new moms to handle these things as they would anyway be sleep deprived , getting up several times during the night and would require lot of rest.
In that situation if I request for a less demanding role in same organization that requires me to work fixed hours like 9 am -5 pm and no extra office hours hours work, would that be a valid request? Will the senior management/HR people consider my request and help me? I am very ambitious, just want to work and enjoy family life at the same time.

Many of my friends are enjoying flexibilities in office..like 2-3 days a week they can wfh. No out of office hrs work. Even If they work on some issue for 1-2 hours they need not come to office the next day. I am feeling upset as I do not have these flexibilities, and im feeling unwilling to start family.. my family members are angry as I am delaying.

 

Thanks to all who have replied..I just want to make one thing clear..By "flexibility", what I mean is mostly flexibility in timings, ..there are some situations when an employee would prefer to go to office early and leave early, or go a little late and stay late...occasional wfh for personal emergencies (like if the pregnant employee is feeling extremely nauseated and unable to travel to office or has a sick kid)..Or maybe if she has a really bad commute to work, she can work for 5 hours from office and leave early and do the remaining low priority tasks after logging in from home?atleast on some days? Or if the employee has attended lot of late night calls and was working for 2-3 hours in the night, she can either wfh the next day or go a little late and leave early from office to catch up on sleep?That way the quality of work is not compromised, deadlines can be met and work is completed on time... I hope its a reasonable request.

 

Yes, you are right..That's what some of my family members also advised..I am open to changing jobs, just trying & hoping to get a flexible employer.