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The pain of miscarriage or still births is usually talked about in hushed tones. Nobody wants to relive the moment every time a friend talks about miscarriage, or condoles with them.
The stress of having to look at and live with the pre-baby preparations can take a toll on couples, and not very many people are ready to have this conversation.
Couples need time to heal and figure out how things will move on. It is for this reason that New Zealand’s Parliament on Wednesday March 24 unanimously approved legislation that would give couples who suffer a miscarriage or stillbirth three days of paid leave, putting the country in the frontline of those providing such benefits.
Initially, in New Zealand, and as in other countries, paid leave was only provided to couples who had miscarried after 20 weeks or in the event of a stillbirth but now the new legislation will expand to cover anyone who loses a pregnancy at any point.
However, the new law does not apply to abortions. New Zealand decriminalized abortion last year, ending the country’s status as one of the few first world nations to limit the grounds for ending a pregnancy in the first half.
Ginny Anderson, a Labour Party member of parliament who drafted the bill, felt this adjustment would give women confidence to be able to request for a leave if it was required, as opposed to just being stoic and getting on with life, when they knew that they needed time, physically or psychologically, to get over the grief.
Ms. Andersen added that she had not been able to find comparable legislation anywhere in the world. “We may well be the first country,” she said, adding, “But all the countries that New Zealand is usually compared to legislate for the 20-week mark.”
The new law, which had been in development for several years, comes amid a broader global reckoning over women at work. Women have long struggled to balance the requirements of their employers with issues like pregnancy, sometimes leading them to miss advancement and other opportunities.
In New Zealand, whose population is five million, the Ministry of Health estimates that one to two pregnancies in 10 will end in miscarriage.
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