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Parents who experience miscarriage – the loss of pregnancy 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 child or a baby after 24 weeks are entitled to two weeks of paid leave. But a group of MPs is calling for the upcoming Employment Rights Bill to extend this to all pregnancy loss.
Anna Malnutt says a right to paid bereavement leave would have made a huge difference to her. She experienced 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 it was recorded as sick leave. After two further pregnancy losses, Anna said she “became a shadow of herself,” and struggled with stress and anxiety at work – which eventually led to her leaving her job.
Anna and her husband now have two children, and she works as a volunteer for the Miscarriage Association. She believes a right to paid bereavement leave would have been “life changing”. Her husband attended meetings and work trips when the couple was going through their pregnancy losses. “They were his babies too. And he never really got time or space to grieve for that himself,” she said.
The report says sick leave is “inappropriate” for the loss of a pregnancy. It is estimated that more than one in five pregnancies end before 24 weeks and around 20% of women will experience baby loss in their lifetime, according to data in the report by the cross-party Women and Equalities Committee.
The committee is proposing bereavement leave should be extended to include those who experienced ectopic pregnancy – when a fertilised egg develops outside of the womb, molar pregnancy – when an egg is not fertilised correctly, IVF embryo transfer loss and terminations for medical reasons. The committee acknowledged that several employers, including NHS Trusts and the Co-op, already had policies in place for employees who experienced baby loss. However, it said this was not universal.
The report describes sick leave as an “inappropriate and inadequate” way of supporting staff through baby loss, and points out that the low rate of statutory sick pay means some people cannot afford to take the time off that they need. Kath Abrahams, chief executive of Tommy’s, the pregnancy and baby charity, said she hoped the government would move quickly to change the law. “For too many women, the psychological and physical impact of pregnancy loss is compounded by pressure to return to work immediately and a lack of time to grieve,” she said.
The Employment Rights Bill is currently working its way through Parliament. It’s been described by the government as the “biggest upgrade to rights at work for a generation”.
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