Solicitor and campaigner Keeley Lengthorn has called on the government to act on a report by MPs recommending that paid leave is given to women who suffer a miscarriage.
Speaking on GB News, Keeley said: “At the moment, as you say, there’s no paid leave at all. The recent report published on Wednesday is a real step forward in relation to that.
“The Commons Women and Equalities committee is calling on the government to offer two weeks paid leave for miscarriages before 24 weeks, which will be the same rights afforded to those who lose a baby after 24 weeks.
“At the moment, we’re being asked to take it as sick leave. And of course, when you lose a baby, it’s not sick leave.
“I lost George at 22 and a half weeks. He was a baby. I bathed him, I dressed him, I buried him, and for the law to say, ‘oh, go back to work the next day’ it’s just not appropriate.
“There needs to be proper safeguards in place. And there is this lacuna in the law at the moment, there’s this real gap. And I’m pleased to see this report has found that.
“It happens to one in five of us, and we’ve recently had the information of baby loss certificates to honour babies’ lives, which is a real step forward again.
“We’ve got these certificates to honour a baby’s lives, but we’ve not got the support in place to then allow parents to mourn that loss and it, when you have a miscarriage, it’s horrible. You’ve got one hormone up here, you’ve got one hormone down here.
“For people to say, I’ll just go back to work the next day, we’re not doing right for society. People are not doing their best jobs when they’re at work.
“We’ve had midwives miscarrying and I’m pleased to see that the NHS have now put in place a baby loss policy and they’re now allowing their employees ten days paid leave.
“If the NHS can do it, and they’re the biggest employer in the UK with 7.7 million employees, let’s face it, the NHS are on their knees. If they can do it, then why can’t the government implement this law.
“More businesses are implementing pregnancy loss policies, which is great, but this needs to be made law now. We need to catch up.
“We’ve got some of the big players who are offering paid leave now, but the little companies, they don’t. And I have people reaching out to me all the time saying, I lost my baby yesterday, it’s been two weeks and my employer is saying I’ve got to go back to work.
“And we’ve got many people who can’t afford, obviously, to take time off work. And if you’re taking it off as sick leave it, then goes on your record.
“When you go to a new employee, you’ve got to explain why you’ve been off. Why should we have to explain this?
“There’s this gap in the law. Employment laws need to keep up, and we need to fill that gap and have some legislation.”
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