<aside> 💭 Sometimes pregnancies and plans to welcome a child into your life don’t go as planned. Around one in four pregnancies will end in miscarriage, an alarming statistic and often something that people don't feel comfortable talking about at work. If adopting a child, there can be many stumbling blocks along the way, some of which could stop the process.
We appreciate why you may feel like you can’t openly grieve such losses at work but we don't believe it should be experienced this way. This page outlines what support is available and how you can seek this.
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<aside> 🌍 We have consulted maternityaction.org.uk for guidance. This is a UK-centric resource, and local laws and legislation in your country may differ. We will adjust as necessary.
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If you experience pregnancy loss (whatever your gender or route to having a child) or a failed adoption process, we're deeply sorry. Losing a child is incredibly upsetting and we're here to support you. Everything outlined below applies to any losses that you may experience (we appreciate that many people experience a number of losses).
All support outlined on this page is optional. Everyone is affected in different ways, and we want to give you and your family as much choice as possible. This may mean taking all leave available to you or none at all, we aren’t here to pass judgement, only to support.
We encourage you to talk to us about what has happened and you can speak to your manager, who will share this news with the People team (or you can speak to the People team directly). This news will be kept confidential but we will talk to you about who else might need to know, and we will work with you to manage this (we can even look after telling people for you).
We appreciate there can be stigma attached to speaking about starting a family in the workplace but we believe that our approach to flexible working goes hand-in-hand with being family-friendly (whether your child is here and present in your life, or you’re working extremely hard to welcome a child into your life).
For an early pregnancy loss or failed adoption process, you’re able to take up to 2-weeks of paid compassionate leave. Taking this leave is entirely your choice but it is available if you need to take some time-off. Please speak to us if you would like to take any additional leave.
Experiencing such a loss may impact your mental health and general sense of self. With this in mind, we encourage you to seek some professional support via the accessible therapy available with the Spill team. They may not be able to connect you with a specialist miscarriage, parental loss, or bereavement therapist, but we have had a consistently great experience with their team. You can find out more here Spill: Accessible Therapy.