By Jonathan Magee
AN INISHOWEN woman who suffered two miscarriages this year has welcomed Government proposals to introduce paid leave for early pregnancy loss.
But she has warned that her own experience shows the limits of a blanket five-day entitlement.
New draft legislation being advanced by Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke would provide women, who suffer a miscarriage, with five days of paid leave for pregnancy loss before 23 weeks.
The bill is expected to be brought to Cabinet in the coming weeks.
The Inishowen woman, a primary school teacher who has chosen to remain private, described two starkly different experiences.
Her first miscarriage, at seven weeks, happened while she was at work.
She attended an emergency GP appointment, returned to her classroom within an hour and a half, and took no further leave.
She said that in hindsight time away might have helped her to process the loss, but that she felt reasonably well and found the routine something of a comfort.
Her second miscarriage, at 12 weeks, was an entirely different ordeal.
She said: “The proposed five-day leave wouldn’t touch what I needed the second time around.”
She described five days of waiting, hospital appointments and pain before delivering at home, followed by an emergency ambulance trip, a night in hospital, and then a day to bury her baby.
That brought her to seven days before any grieving had properly begun. What followed was 40 days of ongoing symptoms, including a further traumatic trip to A&E on day 32, which required her to leave work. She was absent for a total of 21 days in all, with a period of eight days in between when she attempted to return. Her GP and hospital midwife both advised her not to rush back.
She said a bereavement midwife’s question stayed with her throughout: “What would you tell your friend if it was her?” It encouraged her to extend more compassion to herself than she otherwise would have.
While broadly supportive of the proposals, she is clear that a one-size approach will fall short. “A blanket five days is perhaps not necessary, but sometimes five days will definitely not be enough,” she said, adding that the decision about when to return should be guided by medical professionals on a case-by-case basis.
She also questioned the framing around cost. “The forecast that it would cost €10 million sounds like such a crazy figure and puts such a negative spin on what should be providing adequate care for our mothers,” she said. She noted that her own sick leave had been exhausted by hyperemesis during earlier pregnancies, leaving her on reduced and unpaid leave at the very time she needed support most.
Labour has urged Minister Burke to adopt the party’s Reproductive Health Leave Bill, which would entitle women to 20 days’ leave following early pregnancy loss, rather than the five days proposed by the Government.
Irish workers could soon get five days’ paid early miscarriage leave.