A family solicitor asking for statutory leave for employees who suffer a pregnancy loss has made rapid progress in her campaigning. Keeley Lengthorn, a partner at south east firm Taylor Rose MW, suffered a miscarriage 20 weeks into her pregnancy and since then has devoted her time to changing the law on paid leave for others in that position.

Having written about her experiences in the Gazette earlier this year, she was in contact with Lanark and Hamilton East MP Angela Crawley who laid down the Miscarriage Leave Bill as a 10-minute rule bill. The legislation will get its second reading in the House of Commons in December and dozens of other MPs have pledged their backing to the cause.

Lengthorn appeared in national media this week to promote the campaign and has produced a template for constituents to write to their MPs asking for their support for change.

The bill makes provision for paid leave for people who have experienced miscarriage, including ectopic pregnancy and molar pregnancy. It would ensure that employees have at least three days’ paid leave for any miscarriage under 24 weeks – the current threshold under which there is no statutory protection.

Keeley Lengthorn

Keeley Lengthorn: ‘It has become more apparent that we need to have this [policy] in place'

Lengthorn said: ‘For all too long parents have faced these devastating losses and have had to then endure the added worry of having to return to work for fear of not being paid by their employer because of the lack of statutory protection in force.

‘Imagine giving birth to a fully formed baby and having to endure the physical, emotional and mental loss of a baby, not going home with your baby and having to return to work the next day.’

Lengthorn, a partner specialising in family and children’s law, said her own firm had been very supportive, giving her several weeks’ paid leave and providing all the care she needed on her return to work. She said she had been contacted by a number of firms in the legal sector wanting information on how to implement their own paid leave policies irrespective of any legislative change.

‘Taylor Rose MW has introduced a baby loss policy and lots of other law firms and chambers are following,’ she added. ‘The legal industry needs to pave the way for everyone else.

‘It has become more apparent that we need to have this in place. We all talk about wellbeing and this is all at the core of it – losing a baby happens to one in four of us. Miscarriage is not an illness and shouldn’t be classed as such. Employees need to be brave and go to their HR people and ask what they are doing to support their people.’