'A year too long': Sinn Féin senator hits out at delay to miscarriage leave law

Michael Bolton

A Sinn Féin senator has called for more awareness to be raised on the effects of miscarriages after her bill was pushed back by the Government.

Nicole Ryan introduced a bill that would entitle women to at least five days of paid leave and their partners to two and a half days.

The proposed legislation would also lead to the establishment of a confidential opt-in register of pregnancy loss.

However, the Government has pushed back the Bill by 12 months

Speaking to Breakingnews.ie, Ms Ryan spoke of her disappointment at the delay and voiced her concern about what women will go through in the meantime.

"12 months is a very long time, and there will be women who are going through miscarriages, various pregnancy losses under 23 weeks, so it was disappointing to see that push back from the Government on this really important issue."

Ms Ryan said more must be done, by the Government and society in general to make people aware of how a miscarriage can affect someone's life.

The Sinn Féin senator shared what women have been telling her of their experience in the workplace following a miscarriage.

"A lot of the time, for women, it is a lottery of who your employer is, for instance.

"Some have been ment with kindness, others have been met with coldness and questions of when are you going back to work, like you didn't just experience something incredibly traumatic in your life.

"Some people may not understand how complicated the issue is and how women have lost something. It is a grieving process, whether it is a week or 22 weeks, it is still a loss regardless."

"Women are sometimes afraid to say to their employer that they have had a miscarriage, because then it seems they were trying for a child, and they are afraid of being dismissed, or if they are on probation, their probation getting extended or ended.

"There is a lot of education that needs to happen for employers, and what a woman would go through. Sometimes a miscarriage could last a whole month or longer, because you have to do check-up appointments, and sometimes take a medical intervention a second time."

Ms Ryan was among a number of senators who spoke in the Seanad about their experience of miscarriage.

Through this experience, Ms Ryan spoke on the lack of support available and the way people talk regarding miscarriages.

"Through my experience, I just didn't feel massively supported at all in what I was going through.

"Sometimes people say things off the cuff, like at least you can get pregnant, or at least it was only a couple of weeks, you can get on with it.

"The minute you find out you are pregnant, you have knocked out a life, you think about their hair colour, their eye colour, what school they might go to, you are planning things in your own head.

"Then, when that is suddenly ripped away from you, you lose a sense of your own self for a while. It is not as easy as picking myself up and getting on with it."

The time that followed Ms Ryan's miscarriage made her more aware of what happens during pregnancy loss, many symptoms and effects she admitted she was unaware of.

The Cork senator says education is key going forward to best help women during a miscarriage.

"Even when I was going through it in the hospital setting, I wasn't told a lot of things that were going to happen to me.

"I was just told, take this medication, it is going to be a bad period. It was nothing like a bad period; it was way worse. Everything through that miscarriage was incredibly traumatic.

"We are doing a disservice to women by not even explaining some of the most basic things around the choices we have to make when it comes to pregnancy loss."