The introduction of bereavement leave for people who have been through baby loss will ‘acknowledge the pain’ of the experience, businesswomen have told Metro.
On Tuesday, the government confirmed it will back plans to ensure bereavement leave covers pregnancy loss such as miscarriage as part of the Employment Rights Bill.
Rachel Coles, the managing director and co-founder of Conv3rt Marketing, said the move would allow people to mourn their loss in the same way they would for a parent or grandparent.
She had a miscarriage while studying for her Masters at university, less than two weeks after learning she was pregnant.
Rachel, 30, said: ‘I remember going into work literally the next day, not really acknowledging that this had just happened to me, and just trying to get on with it.’
The latest changes are ‘probably the best thing to happen to people who’ve experienced it,’ she said, ‘because when you go through that, you need that time to grieve’.
Statutory parental bereavement leave has been available to employees and pay if there is a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy since April 2020.
In January, the Commons Women and Equalities Committee called for the two-week leave period to be made available for those affected by pre-24 week loss too.
Rachel said: ‘You imagine your life with this child, and then that’s all taken away matter of moments.
‘I find it harder to know that people go through this and go through it alone when you wouldn’t if you lose a parent.’
She compared the sympathy she received when a parent died to the comments to comments directed at women who have miscarried: ‘”Oh, well, at least you lost it early, or, well, there was clearly something wrong with it.”
‘And you’re there like, that was still a baby.’
In her role as a boss, Rachel said she wants her two employees to ‘take that time regardless of the situation, if you’re not in the right frame of mind to work’.
She added: ‘I think what’s good about this bill is it means that every employer has to actually do this.
‘So it’s not just the nice ones, and it’s not just down to pot luck as to whether your boss is a nice boss who will let you have the time.’
For career coach Hannah Salton, the amendment ‘just acknowledges the pain and the big deal that it is to so many people’.
Hannah, 38, had a miscarriage between the births of her two children.
While she described the new move as a ‘step in the right direction’, she said there was still a risk that the taboo surrounding pregnancy loss would stop women from telling their employer what had happened.
She said: ‘While, of course, they’re entitled to it and deserve it, it still is such a sensitive subject, and it may well be that women, similar to me, are still kind of processing it.’
Hannah continued: ‘I think there should be some more thought and support around that.
‘Because it could well be that women who are entitled to this leave, who want to take the leave, find it such a difficult conversation to bring up that they don’t request it, and end up kind of plowing on regardless, which obviously is a bit problematic.’
Business minister Justin Madders told MPs on Tuesday the government ‘fully accepts’ the principle of bereavement leave for pregnancy loss.
He added: ‘Bereavement is not an illness, it’s not a holiday and it does need its own special category.’
Madders said the government will work with MPs and peers to amend the Employment Rights Bill.
Sarah Owen, the chair of the Women and Equalities Committee who has spoken about her own experiences of miscarriage in the Commons, said: ‘It doesn’t just provide rights, but goes a long way into furthering how we talk about pregnancy loss in society as a whole.
‘That miscarriage is no longer ignored, that it is no longer stigmatised as a sickness.
‘People have been moved to tears of joy, relief and raw emotion that their loss is now acknowledged and things will change. Later tonight, in the privacy of my home, I’ll probably be one of those too.’
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
