'Time to grieve': Paid bereavement leave should cover miscarriage, MPs say

Women and their partners should be given paid time off work if they experience a miscarriage, MPs have said.

As of April 2020, employees can be eligible for statutory parental bereavement leave, including pay, if they have a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, but there is no specific leave for a pre-24 week miscarriage.

The Women and Equalities Committee (WEC) is recommending the two-week leave period should now be made available to women who experience a miscarriage, and their partners who support them.

An estimated one in five pregnancies end before 24 weeks, with as many as 20% ending in the first 12 weeks, known as early miscarriage.

The cross-party group of MPs acknowledged that while a “growing number of employers have specific pregnancy loss leave and pay policies” there remains a “very substantial” gap in support.

And while the introduction of baby loss certificates was welcome it “does not go far enough and it should be backed up by statutory support”.

Many women are forced to take sick leave, which the committee says is an “inappropriate and inadequate” form of employer support as it does not afford women adequate confidentiality or dignity and puts them at high risk of employment discrimination.

Charlotte Butterworth-Pool, 34, has suffered two pregnancy losses before 24 weeks.

She didn’t tell her employer about the first – as she “just so happened to have the week off” – but her devastation after the second meant she spoke to her workplace.

“I took a week off sick and had to spend the full week in bed,” she tells Sky News. “But then I had to go back to work, and everyone knew I was expecting a baby, which was upsetting. That was quite difficult to manage.”

Ms Butterworth-Pool says she “probably would have taken longer [off]” if a statutory policy had been in place.

The committee intends to put forward amendments to the government’s Employment Rights Bill, in the name of WEC’s Chair, Labour MP Sarah Owen.

This recommendations would cover anyone who experiences miscarriages, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, in vitro fertilisation embryo transfer loss, or who has a termination for medical reasons.

“I was not prepared for the shock of miscarrying at work during my first pregnancy,” Ms Owen said.

“Like many women, I legally had to take sick leave. But I was grief stricken, not sick, harbouring a deep sense of loss.”
She added that the case for a minimum standard in law is “overwhelming”.

“A period of paid leave should be available to all women and partners who experience a pre-24-week pregnancy loss. It’s time to include bereavement leave for workers who miscarry in new employment rights laws.”

‘We need more compassion for mums and their loss’

A number of women have backed the committee’s proposal, including Leila Green, 41, who says “people just didn’t understand why I couldn’t just get on with it” after she suffered a pregnancy loss.

Ms Green, who went on to have triplets, even found it hard to explain her feelings to her husband.

“He didn’t know that baby, that baby was a stranger to him,” she says. “But the baby shared my blood, I knew that baby. I had all these wonderful ideas of what I would do with this wonderful child that got snatched away so suddenly.”

She now supports women with her organisation F**k Mum Guilt and adds: “We need more compassion for mums and their loss. You cannot expect us to act like robots.

“If we go on like nothing has happened, it’s like a ticking time bomb waiting to go off.”

Tess Woodward, 35, has experienced six pregnancy losses and felt like “the rug had been pulled out from under us” after the first in 2020.

“Physically I had to take some time off work for the surgery, and then to recover from it,” she says. “Emotionally, it was very difficult to deal with.”

Ms Woodward’s employer offered her all the support she needed but prior to this, she admits she had been worried.

The fact she was supported “removed some of the extra worry that could have been there,” she adds.

A spokesperson from the Department for Business and Trade said: “Losing a child at any stage is incredibly difficult and we know many employers will show compassion and understanding in these circumstances.

“Our Employment Rights Bill will establish a new right to bereavement leave, make paternity and parental leave a day one right, and strengthen protections for pregnant women and new mothers returning to work.”