Bereavement Leave: New Zealand Approves Paid Leave For Couples After Miscarriages, Stillbirths

New Zealand’s Parliament has on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation of a three-day paid leave for couples who suffer a miscarriages or stillbirths.

While employers in the country were already required to provide paid leave in the event of stillbirth, there was some confusion surrounding the qualifications.

The groundbreaking new bill removes any ambiguity, extending benefits to anyone who loses a pregnancy at any point. Previously, grieving couples had to use sick leave when dealing with the end of a pregnancy.

With the new legislation, the measure is expected to become a law in coming weeks.

MP Ginny Andersen, who drafted the bill, said it would allow mothers and their partners to “come to terms with their loss” without taking sick leave, stressing;

I felt that it would give women the confidence to be able to request that 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, adding that;

We may well be the first country. But all the countries that New Zealand is usually compared to legislate for the 20-week mark.

The bill also applies to those having a child though adoption or surrogacy.

New Zealand is reportedly only the second country in the world to introduce the measure, after India.

The legislation, which was unanimously passed in parliament, provides three days of bereavement leave.

Anderson said one in four women in New Zealand have had a miscarriage and she hoped the new provision would give them “time to come to terms with their loss without having to tap into sick leave“.

“Their grief is not a sickness, it is a loss. And loss takes time,” she said, adding that New Zealand was “leading the way for progressive and compassionate legislation“.

However, the new law does not apply to abortions, Ms. Andersen added. New Zealand decriminalised abortion last year and allowed women to choose a termination up to 20 weeks into a pregnancy, ending the country’s status as one of the few wealthy nations to limit the grounds for ending a pregnancy in the first half.

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 Australia, people who miscarry are entitled to unpaid leave if they lose a fetus after 12 weeks, while in Britain, would-be parents who experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks are eligible for paid leave. The United States does not require employers to provide leave for anyone who suffers a miscarriage.

Up to 20 percent of all known pregnancies in the United States end in miscarriage, according to statistics. In New Zealand, whose population is five million, the Ministry of Health estimates that one to two pregnancies in 10 will end in miscarriage.

Many women and human rights advocates in New Zealand and around the world would definitely be glad about the new legislation.