British parents to gain right to bereavement leave after miscarriage

This would have been good when I had mine 9 years ago, no sick pay so I just lost 3 days wages (and I tried to go in and got sent home).

Seriously? Are they going to introduce it for abortions as well then?

Good, because when you have a miscarriage you don’t just lose a baby early on….as soon as you get that positive pregnancy test you’re thinking of the future: Christmas, holidays, schools, baby names. A whole future looking from that blue line and then Wham! It’s gone. And you grieve that future that’s not going to happen, both parents.

I ending up leaving a job who were frankly, horrific to me after I had two traumatic miscarriages (both requiring operations).

There was a real unspoken “why do you need time off?” that was spoken as “you’ll be back next week, yes?”

Their lack of kindness meant they lost a valuable member of staff and it was so unnecessary.

I hope this right comes with some understanding.

Great news but how is it going to work in reality?
Early miscarriage is often a sign of underlying fertility issues. It’s not uncommon for these women to have multiple miscarriages within a short space of time.
Also, they may miscarry early before having registered with the GP for antenatal care etc.
As a woman of childbearing age I can guarantee you taking all that leave would have my card marked. No baby. No career. Nothing.
Women are protected when pregnant (and some time after giving birth).
But getting fired when trying to conceive screws us over… we lose any maternity benefits with the original employer and have to start all over again… most places have 2 years before qualifying for enhanced maternity pay.
Personally I’d never risk it more than once.
But then again, I suppose it would be my choice after the first time.

oh and also, another reason for employers to avoid hiring us 🙂

EDIT (for all the people downvoting great that you’ve never been disciminated against)
I’ll try to find it but there’s a study linking early miscarriages to the number of subsequent ones – the figure is about 30%.
But also, the issue isn’t ‘early’ miscarriage or otherwise. It’s that a blank check for leave sounds great in theory, however causes other issues in practice.
It’s hard enough for women of childbearing age to get hired over men although we’re more qualified. Because employers think we’re just going to go off on maternity leave. This doesn’t help.
Don’t get me wrong, my family has a history of infertility issues which is why I know too much about it and also how devastating it can be. Lost multiple siblings to miscarriages and even stillbirth.

However without employer education, further protections for women who have taken this leave. It’s not going make employers happily give it to us. Like I said, it’ll just mark our cards + people will avoid hiring us even more.

Of course this is unlikely to be a problem for women in male dominated fields. But like myself, working in a very male dominated, technical role. You won’t believe the questions I’ve been asked related to my family plans. I even stopped wearing my wedding ring and never mentioned my husband because of all the problems it caused.

My wife and I have had three miscarriages in the last 12 months (two first trimester, one late loss we’re still waiting on answers for). We’ve been very lucky on one front and only one: that both of our jobs gave us as much time as we needed to get back to a functioning level after our losses.

I can’t imagine being forced back to work quickly after a miscarriage. Whether it’s early or late, you still bond with the life growing inside you/your partner. We didn’t only lose our growing babies: we lost our hope at a future, three times over.

Honestly that’s fair and I’m surprised it’s not one of those things agreed sooner. Seems to be something you’d think would have almost universal acceptance.

You spend weeks or months in hope, preparing to bring life into this world, and then have that hope ripped out of you. That would be devastating, it can tear a relationship apart, and letting people process this grief is a good thing

A serious question: how could this be enforced? Miscarriages can be extreme common for some people. Would the pregnancy have to be of a minimum length? Do you have to tell your employer you’re expecting before you can then claim they’ve miscarried? It says parents, so how many girlfriends can a guy claim he’s gotten pregnant? Is there going to be a cap? Are you going to tell me that those first two first 1-2 month in miscarriages at the start of the year arentour lot, but the only 6 months in towards the autumn isn’t entitled to the leave anymore? To get this leave as a father, you’d have to be disclosing personal medical information about someone else who may not want them knowing, doesn’t this break health privacy or GDPR?

Other bereavement periods or mat/paternity breaks are about public knowledge affairs (deaths/births) so it’s easy to verify and your not disclosing anything someone couldn’t find out for themselves.

What about ectopic pregnancies?? Mine was worse than my miscarriage. My ectopic caused ptsd and anxiety medication for the last 6 years!!