News
Taylor Rose MW Partner appears on TV and Radio for Baby Loss Awareness Week
KEELEY LENGTHORN >
Partner
Thu 13 October 2022
Taylor Rose MW’s Keeley Lengthorn, Partner in our Family department has appeared on national TV and radio to talk about her ongoing campaign to change the laws relating to baby-loss.
Keeley was interviewed by the former Labour MP Gloria De Piero, and veteran broadcaster Mark Longhurst on GB News. The interview, broadcast to TV viewers and radio listeners, formed part of a special report screened by the channel to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week which is running from October 9-15.
In the interview, Keeley talked about her ongoing campaign to extend the legal right for all business to offer three days’ paid leave for parents who have experienced miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, or molar pregnancy before 24 weeks.
Keeley, who has tragically suffered three miscarriages in the last three years, believes the current law – which gives employees the right to take statutory parental bereavement leave on the death of a child under 18 years of age and after 24 weeks of pregnancy – excludes thousands of women and men across the UK who suffer a miscarriage before 24 weeks every day and are required to return to work immediately after suffering such a traumatic incident.
Taylor Rose MW is one of a small number of firms who have agreed to change policy in this area but Keeley hopes a second reading of the Miscarriage Leave Bill, due to be heard in the House of Commons, in early December will force other businesses to follow suit.
She told GB News: “I lost my son, George, in March at 22-and-a-half-weeks. It was my third loss in three years.”
“Following George’s death, it became very apparent to me that there was no statutory protection in place for anyone in terms of returning back to work. As it currently stands, anyone who loses a baby after 24 weeks must return back to work the next day. In circumstances like mine, I gave birth to a fully formed baby. I had a six-hour birth for him. Yet the law says that I must go back to work the next day.”
“As a result of that, I’ve started a national campaign to call on all employers to enact specialist miscarriage leave policies within their workplaces to try and assist women and men who are going through this traumatic experience and having to return back to work the next day. I can’t believe we’re in 2022 yet we’re only just looking at this now.”
“As a result, I drafted a policy for my firm, which they enacted at the beginning of this year. I was unfortunately the first employee to use that,” she continued.
“But it is now effective, and we’re working on that and loads and loads of other firms have now come forward, not just legal businesses, but Channel 4 and ASOS. All different businesses have come forward and said we will enact this.”
“I can’t believe we are where we are, but I am working closely with MPs. We’ve had lots of roundtables. I’m encouraging all MPs to support Angela Crawley in the second reading, so that we can get this statutory provision in place.”
“We talk time and time about wellbeing in the workplace, but this comes to the heart and core of that, and it must be at the forefront of employers’ minds and MPs’ minds now and they must, must support this bill.”
Please click the contact us button to email Keeley directly for more information regarding her ongoing campaign.
