New Zealand approves paid leave for couples after miscarriage

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern. Picture: AP Photo/Mark Baker

Working mothers and their partners who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth during pregnancy will be allowed to take paid leave in New Zealand.

A unanimous vote in the parliament passed the provision, believed to be the first of its kind in the world.

The bereavement allowance gives working parents three days' leave if a pregnancy ends with a stillbirth instead of forcing them to use sick leave.

New Zealand MP Ginny Andersen said the stigma that surrounds stillbirths meant many people were reluctant to discuss dedicated bereavement leave.

She said in parliament: "The grief that comes with miscarriage is not a sickness; it is a loss, and that loss takes time -- time to recover physically and time to recover mentally."

Ms Andersen added that the bereavement leave extends to a woman's partner as well as those attempting to have a child through surrogacy.

She said: "I can only hope that while we may be one of the first, we will not be one of the last and that other countries will also begin to legislate for a compassionate and fair leave system that recognises the pain and the grief that comes from miscarriage and stillbirth."

A win for women workers

Irish Labour Senator Ivana Bacik welcomed the news from New Zealand saying the legislation represented "a win for workers, particularly women workers."

She said: “In Ireland, as in other countries, people, and women in particular, suffer in silence about their fertility struggles.

"We owe it to each other as a society to end this stigma."

Ms Bacik called on members of the Oireactas to support Labour's bill to provide "reproductive health-related leave." to Irish workers.

“Labour’s legislation would go further than the New Zealand Bill, allowing for up to 20 days paid leave in the case of early miscarriage and up to 10 days leave for employees accessing other reproductive health treatments, such as IVF.

"It is crucially important to provide practical recognition of the reality that, for many workers, reproductive health issues are lived every moment of every day."