Certificate of loss for early miscarriages could be in place by next year

' I really struggled to have a family and I lost five babies myself. I’ve two children now and I’m very lucky, but there’s no question I would get involved in supporting this,' Senator Linda Nelson Murray said. File picture: Sam Boal/Collins

A certificate of loss for women who had an early miscarriage could be available within a year with advanced plans in place, a cross-party Oireachtas group has said.

In Ireland birth certificates are only available when pregnancy loss happens after 23 weeks.

This new plan is proposed as an alternative way to record a child but will not be a birth certificate.

Senator Linda Nelson Murray has personal experience with this issue.

“I really struggled to have a family and I lost five babies myself. I’ve two children now and I’m very lucky, but there’s no question I would get involved in supporting this,” she said.

“You don’t have mementos. They might be miscarriages after a short time. So for me it was between five weeks and 11 weeks so very early. The only baby I have a scan picture for is a baby that lasted 11 weeks.”

Early miscarriage can leave parents without a way to acknowledge their loss, although she said: “You had all the dreams.”

This document will be a pregnancy loss certificate under 23 weeks but not a birth certificate, she said.

“This will be a voluntary register where people can register and recognise there was a baby who is not with us anymore,” she said.

“This is for people (miscarrying) under 23 weeks because after 23 weeks that is classified as a stillbirth and you can get your birth cert.”

The plan is supported by ministers Dara Calleary and Jennifer Carroll MacNeill.

“We’re working with the Department of Health and the Department of Social Protection. It will fall under the department of social protection,” she said.

We haven’t been given a timeline, but the group really would hope we could see this in the next year.

The HSE says almost one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.

The Cross Party Oireachtas Group on Pregnancy and Infant Loss is chaired by senator Nicole Ryan.

Last Wednesday it met the Miscarriage Association of Ireland, the Pregnancy Loss Research Group (PLRG) based at University College Cork, stillbirth support charity Féileacáin, and others.

Professor Keelin O’Donoghue leads the PLRG.

“It’s proposed by us, like in other countries where this has been introduced, that while the certificate doesn’t have legal status, this is still an official document, not merely commemorative,” she said.

They advised it should be “optional and voluntary” as well as as “accessible to everyone” she said.

It should also be “as inclusive as possible, recognising that people have varying views and experiences within and across all forms of pregnancy loss and pregnancy endings”.

She was encouraged by the political reaction, saying “strong support” was obvious at the meeting.

“We look forward at the PLRG, along with experts by experience such as Féileacáin and the Miscarriage Association, to being involved in the DSP’s plans for the certificate’s development and implementation,” she said.

Northern Ireland will soon introduce ‘Baby loss certificates — for pregnancies ending before 24 weeks’.

Legislation for this passed the final stages last December.

Scotland offers a ‘Memorial Book of Pregnancy and Baby Loss Prior to 24 Weeks’.

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