A solicitor who has spent three years campaigning for statutory paid leave after a baby loss has spoken of her joy at the imminent prospect of success.
The government is reported to have added bereavement leave after suffering a miscarriage to its workers' rights reforms. Changes to the employment rights bill, which is at the report stage in the House of Commons, would give mothers and their partners the right to two weeks’ paid leave if they have suffered a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks’ gestation.
This entitlement would match the statutory leave that parents can already take where they have lost a child or suffered a stillbirth later than 24 weeks.
Keeley Lengthorn, whose son George would have been three this week, has spent years lobbying MPs and trying to secure legislation for a law change. She found out yesterday her efforts had come to fruition.
‘It is more than we ever could have hoped for,’ she told the Gazette. ‘George’s Law was initially intended to campaign for three days and this is two weeks. I got the message about the law change and I was just stunned into silence. Part of me feels I should be sad, especially as I found out on his birthday. But to know his memory is going to help 250,000 families a year is absolutely massive.’
Lengthorn, who had gone through IVF treatment to get pregnant, was told by doctors at 22 and a half weeks that her baby would not survive after her waters broke. She gave birth to a son, named George, who was born sleeping and weighed one pound.
She recalled that the prospect of immediately going back to work and potentially advocating in court made the process much harder. ‘Two weeks would have made me feel so much less anxious about going back. You are supposed to be having a meeting with a midwife and instead you have to think about being in the office. That extra time makes things so much easier.’
Lengthorn, head of public law children in the London office of RWK Goodman, praised the legal profession for being pioneers of the bereavement leave, with many chambers and firms committing to offering paid leave without it appearing on the statute book. She added that she would continue to advocate for parents who have suffered baby loss even after the law is changed.
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