Parents who experience miscarriage – Pregnancy loss during the first 23 weeks – Should be legally entitled to paid bereavement leave, according to a report by MPs.
Currently only those who lose a baby or child after 24 weeks are entitled to two weeks paid leave. But a group of MPs is calling for the upcoming Employment Rights Bill to extend it to all pregnancy losses.
A spokesperson for the Department for Business said the loss of the child was “incredibly difficult and we know that many employers will be sympathetic and understanding in these circumstances.”
But Anna Malant said she went back to work three days after the miscarriage: “I didn’t really know how much time was right, and I felt like I needed to go back.”
Anna suffered three pregnancy losses in 2018.
Despite her boss being very supportive, she decided to go back to work three days after her first miscarriage, and was recorded as sick leave.
After two more pregnancy losses, Anna said she “became a shadow of herself” and struggled with stress and anxiety at work – which eventually led to her quitting her job.
“I believe I could have stayed in this job if I had taken the time to recover properly and managed the return to work better,” she said.
‘They were his children too’
Anna and her husband now have two children, and she works as a volunteer for the Abortion Association. He believes the right to bereavement leave would have been “life-changing”.
Her husband attended meetings and work trips as the couple worked through their pregnancy losses.
“They were her children too. And she really didn’t have the time or space to grieve for him,” she said.
Anna says it also meant he couldn’t support her the way he wanted to.
“If there was a policy, it would be very easy for him to say, ‘I’m going to take a few weeks off.’
According to figures from a report by the Cross-Party Women and Equality Committee, it is estimated that one in five pregnancies end before 24 weeks and around 20% of women experience a miscarriage in their lifetime. .
It is recommended that bereavement leave should be extended to include those who have experienced an ectopic pregnancy – when the baby grows outside the womb, a molar pregnancy – when the egg is not fertilized properly. , IVF embryo transfer loss and termination for medical reasons.
The committee recognized that many employers, including NHS trusts and co-ops, already have policies in place for employees who have experienced child loss.
However, he said this is not universal.
Labor MP Sarah Owen, chair of the committee, shared her own experience of child loss.
“I wasn’t prepared for the trauma of having a miscarriage at work during my first pregnancy,” she said.
“Like a lot of women, I had to take legal sick leave. But I was grieving, not sick, with a deep sense of loss.”
The report described sick leave as an “inadequate and inadequate” way of supporting staff through the loss of a child, and noted that the low rate of statutory sick pay meant that some people Can’t afford to take time off as needed.
Keith Abrahams, chief executive of pregnancy and baby charity Tommy’s, said he hoped the government would move quickly to change the law.
“For too many women, the psychological and physical effects of pregnancy loss are compounded by the pressure to return to work immediately and the lack of time to grieve,” she said.
“It is unacceptable that sickness absence is often the only option, potentially leaving women and their partners financially vulnerable,” she added.
gave Employment Bill of Rights Currently working its way through Parliament. It has been hailed by the government as “the biggest upgrade in rights at work for a generation”.
A Department for Business and Trade spokesman said: “Our Employment Rights Bill will introduce a new right to bereavement leave, paternity and parental leave to one day, and pregnant women and new mothers returning to work. It will strengthen security.”