Staffordshire mother backs call for paid leave after miscarriage

Jess Hughes said it was important to have time off after a traumatic experience

"I would sit at my desk, just reading an email and just start crying."

Jess Hughes has lost five babies, including miscarrying twice and three ectopic pregnancies.

She was diagnosed with PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - after surgery following her first ectopic pregnancy in November 2016, when she had a fallopian tube removed.

"People knew why I hadn't been at work [after miscarrying] but people didn't know what to say; it was a bit silent, people distanced themselves because they didn't want to have the awkward conversations," said Mrs Hughes, from Penkridge in Staffordshire.

Although she had a month of paid leave from work following the first baby she and her husband Ross lost, she had to take statutory sick pay of about £80 a week following the other four losses their family experienced.

She said she was supporting a private members' bill brought by SNP MP Angela Crawley, which was due to have its second reading in the House of Commons on Friday, calling on the government to give women and their partners the legal right to take three days' paid leave if a pregnancy ends before 24 weeks.

'Not like the films'

The MP first introduced the bill to Parliament in June last year.

The government introduced paid parental leave for the loss of a baby after 24 weeks in April 2020.

It entitles a parent to two weeks' leave paid at £151.97 a week, or 90% of their average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Some employers have already decided to introduce paid leave themselves.

Mrs Hughes, who is now pregnant with a boy who would be her third child with daughters Ruby, aged four, and May, who is 17 months old, said it was important to have time off to cope with what has happened.

• Call to extend paid leave for miscarriage

• What to say to someone who's lost a baby

• 'I faced miscarriage alone - my partner had to wait in the car park'

"It's not like in films," she said.

"You don't just go to the toilet and bleed and you are not pregnant anymore.

"It does need to be able to be spoken about, it's happening to a lot of women every single day.

"It's so important. You need the time off to get yourself back to good health. You are still losing your child - it's a bereavement.

"Three days is still not enough [paid leave]; there's not a miscarriage that lasts three days but it's a start and it's a brilliant start if it can get passed."

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