This week, New Zealand announced they have passed a groundbreaking law to introduce bereavement leave following miscarriages and stillbirths.
MP Ginny Andersen, who put forward the bill, said it would allow mothers and their partners to ‘come to terms with their loss’ without having to take sick leave. The legislation, which was unanimously passed in New Zealand’s parliament, provides three days of bereavement leave and also applies to those having a child though adoption or surrogacy.
One in four pregnancies end in miscarriage. That means most employers have staff who have been affected. In the UK, pre-24 weeks (when the majority of miscarriages occur) the only thing people can do is get a sick note from their doctor so time off can be recorded as ‘pregnancy-related’ sick leave. Whether that’s paid or not depends on the employer. So, basically, never going to happen for those working in the gig economy on zero-hours contracts.
The other option is to struggle on at work, sitting in meetings while potentially still bleeding and in pain, eat into your holiday allowance or get your pay docked. With miscarriage as common as it is it beggars belief that there is no such policy already in place. Or is that only to be expected with a man in charge in the UK?
While the passing of this law in New Zealand is to be celebrated, it leaves a bitter taste: why does it take a female Prime Minister to realise would-be-parents need time to grieve after experiencing this kind of trauma?
Yet again, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has demonstrated a compassion and understanding for women’s lives we rarely see from male world leaders. It’s great they have a woman in office to power through policies which don’t only consider the lives of middle-aged men, but what a shame that it takes a woman in charge to get this done. Looking at our own Government and its male-dominated cabinet it seems we’ll be waiting a while to see anything of the sort in the UK.
The reality is that, more often than not, the men we have in power don’t have a clue about women’s needs. With more women in senior roles we’re more likely to see decision-making informed by knowledge of and a concern for our lives. Of course, women at the top aren't always the answer, as Home Secretary Priti Patel valiantly proves - she voted against banning the detention of pregnant women in immigration jails and consistently votes against basic human rights protections. But it would certainly be a start.
When it comes to female representation in Government we’ve been promised ‘improvements to come’ in Boris Johnson’s next reshuffle. But considering how damaging the handling of the pandemic has been for women, do we really trust them to introduce radical transformations any time soon?
In the past year we’ve seen women’s progress put in reverse as we’ve lost jobs and been lumped with childcare and homeschooling at a much higher rate than men, which has caused a knock-on effect on our mental health. Equal pay gap reporting was suspended last year - Grazia campaigened to make sure it wasn't again in 2021. And there was the sexist ‘Stay Home Save Lives’ Government advert that depicted women doing the domestic chores while men sprawled on the sofa. The lack of women at the helm has been screamingly evident.
Can we really expect this same Government to be thinking of the needs of women who have gone through the trauma of a miscarriage or stillbirth if they don’t deem it important we record where women aren’t paid the same as men?
Through out her time in office Jacinda Ardern has wowed the world by doing something so incredibly simple - adding compassion to her politics. It seems so easy, yet, if it doesn’t come naturally, it’s evidently hard to fake.
As well as how beneficial the policy will be for grieving would-be-parents in New Zealand, Jacinda has also sent a powerful message that she sees these people and they matter to her.
We shouldn’t need women in charge to see laws introduced that reflect everyone’s needs, but we do, so let’s start by getting a more equal cabinet. Until that happens, we’ll have to make do with watching enviously as New Zealand outshines the rest of the world with its progressive, compassionate politics.
For information about your rights around misacarriage and still birth in the UK visit www.miscarriageassociation.org.uk
Read More: I Had PTSD After My Miscarriage - And So Do 30% Of Women Who Have Had Miscarriages