Myleene Klass campaigns for paid bereavement leave to cover miscarriages
The former Hear’Say singer has suffered four miscarriages and often spoken openly about the psychological effects of baby loss on women.
Myleene Klass has questioned how you can place the loss of a child in the same bracket as someone having a cold as she campaigned for paid bereavement leave to be extended to those who experience a miscarriage.
The former Hear’Say singer, who is mother to daughters Ava and Hero and son Apollo, has suffered four miscarriages and often spoken openly about the psychological effects of baby loss on women.
MPs from the Women and Equalities Committee are calling for a law change to ensure paid bereavement leave is available to women and their partners who experience a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks as they say sick leave is an “inappropriate and inadequate form of employer support” for this experience.
Since April 2020 employees can be eligible for statutory parental bereavement leave and pay if there is a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy, but there is no specific leave for a pre-24 week loss in the form of miscarriage.
Appearing on ITV’s Good Morning Britain on Wednesday, Klass said: “With bereavement leave, the parameters or the boundaries for both the employee and the employer are very clear.
“This is not the first time that this has been mooted, which is, I guess, frustrating, but again, at the same time, it shows the importance that people do feel we need this change.
“It’s integral to looking after both the women and the family’s mental health. How can you dismiss the loss of a child as in the same bracket or the same arena as someone having a common cold and just needing to go and see a GP.
“There has been a baby loss and that should be acknowledged.”
The committee has said an estimated more than one in five pregnancies end before 24 weeks, with between 10% and 20% of pregnancies ending in the first 12 weeks, known as early miscarriage.
Klass, 46, explained there is no data collection on miscarriages and a lack of understanding on why they occur.
“We don’t have any idea whether fertility issues or miscarriage runs in families, because we have been taught for so long as women to keep silent”, she said.
“It’s a deep, dark secret, even the first trimester, we keep silent in our pregnancy…
“Then what happens is you then need to go to your doctor, or you then need to go to your employer and say I was pregnant, and now I’ve lost a baby, and it’s a double whammy, and this secrecy is something that is an actual effective prison for women.”
The musician and campaigner said the former government previously told her extending the paid bereavement leave would “cost them too much”.
“I asked them ‘What does too much look like?’ And they didn’t have a figure because there was no data collected”, she added.
She said it would “cost everyone far less” if there was a consolidated point for women to go to and “get the correct treatment they deserve”.
The musician, presenter and entrepreneur, who is an ambassador for the pregnancy and baby charity Tommy’s, was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for her services to women’s health, miscarriage awareness and to charity in the New Year Honours list.
Also among those campaigning is Labour MP Sarah Owen, who has experienced three miscarriages.
She said that getting sick leave for her pregnancy loss “reinforced the idea that was something wrong with myself, something that I had done something wrong.
“It was my fault that I’d miscarried. And actually, that’s not true.”
She added: “You need time to grieve, and you need to feel supported, and you, especially as a woman, need to feel that this wasn’t your fault, because there’s enough going on at that time.”
