West Yorkshire charity backs calls for paid bereavement leave if people experience a miscarriage
Women and their partners should be entitled to paid bereavement leave if they experience a miscarriage, MPs have recommended
Last updated 15th Jan 2025
A committee of MPs has recommended that couples should be entitled to paid bereavement leave if they go through a miscarriage.
Sick leave is an “inappropriate and inadequate form of employer support” for woman and their partners after such a pregnancy loss, the Women and Equalities Committee said.
Since April 2020 employees can be eligible for statutory parental bereavement leave and pay if there is a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, but there is no specific leave for a pre-24 week loss in the form of miscarriage.
The committee said the two-week leave period should be also made available to those bereaved as a result of pre-24 week pregnancy loss.
The committee said an estimated more than one in five pregnancies end before 24 weeks, with between 10% and 20% of pregnancies ending in the first 12 weeks, known as early miscarriage.
Wakefield-based Miscarriage Association said they are backing these calls after running a similar campaign on this.
Vicki Robinson is the Chief Executive and said: "No one goes into a pregnancy do they thinking, oh I shouldn't get attached to this pregnancy in case it ends.
You know for most people as soon as they know they're pregnant, that's a baby, that's the start of a family, or start of extending their family, it's a start of what looks like a new life."
She goes on to say how they have done a similar campaign calling for this. Vicki said: "If you have a loss pre-24 weeks it can feel really really difficult, and it can feel really really unfair that your loss isn't treated in the same way as later losses.
"So, we would really like to see this happen."
A spokesperson for 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."