MP Ginny Andersen put up the Members Bill - giving mothers and their partners three days of bereavement leave following a miscarriage or stillbirth. Screengrab / Parliament TV
From RNZ
Parliament has unanimously passed legislation giving mothers and their partners three days of bereavement leave following a miscarriage or stillbirth.
The member's bill in the name of Labour MP Ginny Andersen provides for three days bereavement leave following the end of a pregnancy as a result of miscarriage or stillbirth.
That would apply to mothers, their partners, as well as parents planning to have a child through adoption or surrogacy.
Andersen said the law change would give women and their partners time to come to terms with their loss without having to tap into sick leave, and she acknowledged MPs across the House for their unanimous support.
Each year, thousands of New Zealand parents experience the loss of a baby before, or almost immediately after, birth.
Last year, the NZ Herald published an in depth online series on the issue.
Before 20 weeks' gestation the Ministry of Health defines the loss as a miscarriage, something which is "fairly common - about one or two out of every 10 pregnant women miscarry", according to the ministry's website.
Other experts, including the New Zealand College of Midwives, put the figure at around one in four women, with more than 95 per cent of miscarriages occurring in the first 12 to 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Some begin and end naturally, sometimes even before a pregnancy is known, others require medical attention.
But whenever they take place, the babies lost as a result are not registered with Births, Deaths and Marriages, so exact numbers aren't known.
Sands New Zealand, a charity which supports families grieving the loss of a baby, estimates somewhere between about 5900 and 11,800 occur each year, based on the ministry figure of 10 or 20 per cent of pregnancies ending in miscarriage and the annual live birth rate, which was 59,637 last year.
Unborn babies who die after 20 weeks' gestation are registered as stillbirths, which occurs in about one in every 200 pregnancies, according to the ministry.
Those born after 20 weeks' gestation, or weighing at least 400g if gestation is unknown, and who show signs of life - such as a heartbeat or pulsation of the umbilical cord - are considered, up to the age of 28 days, a neonatal death.
According to the most recent Perinatal and Maternal Mortality Review Committee report there were 288 stillbirths and 172 neonatal deaths - 137 of those occurring in the first seven days of life - in 2017. The stillbirths and neonatal deaths were among 60,454 births that year, according to the committee, which independently reviews the deaths of babies and mothers.
- Additional reporting Kathryn van Beek & Cherie Howie, NZ Herald.
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