MISCARRIAGE LEAVE WOULD open up the conversation around an “enormous silent trauma”, the Labour Party has said.

TV presenter Anna Daly said formal miscarriage leave would be “an acknowledgement” and “open up the conversation”.

Daly, who had two miscarriages one after the other, said she was shocked to realise there was no specific recognised leave for the occurrence and that she had to take sick leave.

Presenter Anna Daly outside Leinster House. Brian Lawless / PA Brian Lawless / PA / PA

She said: “It adds to the secrecy and the taboo around miscarriage. You go out on sick leave, you come back, and nobody talks about it.”

“The second time it happened to me, it happened over the course of a weekend, and I was back at work on Monday, and no time whatsoever, no space to process that grief, to get your head around what’s happened at all.”

Daly added: “I have three healthy children following those miscarriages, and I’m delighted by my noisy, crazy house.

“But I just find it hard to believe that 15 years on, we still don’t have any legitimate leave for women and for their partners.”

She was speaking ahead of Labour’s Bill being discussed at the Oireachtas Committee on Employment on Wednesday.

The party is seeking up to 20 days’ paid leave for women in the workplace who suffer early miscarriage or pregnancy loss in the first six months of pregnancy.

It said there is currently no provision in Irish law for that leave.

Labour health spokeswoman Marie Sherlock said: “What’s really important in our Bill is that we also make sure that there is an anti-penalisation measure there.

“The recurring theme that we’ve heard from hundreds of stories over the past five years is that people are terrified about saying in the workplace ‘this is happening to me’ for fear that it impacts their career progression, their wages.

“So we need to make sure that we turn the dial on that, that there is greater openness about these conversations.”

She added: “These are not uncommon issues. It’s one in four pregnancies end in miscarriage.

“One in six couples in this country experience infertility.”

Labours Marie Sherlock. Brian Lawless / PA Brian Lawless / PA / PA

Daly said official leave would make the experience of those affected by miscarriage “more legitimate” in the workplace.

She said: “It would make it more real. It would stop making us ignore it.

“It would stop saying ‘she’s off sick’. We’re not sick, actually. You know, it’s something completely different.”

Daly added: “Quite often, it’s something two people are going through and it’s a huge loss.”

Labour Party leader Ivana Bacik said the “enormous silent trauma” is why her party brought forward the Bill five years ago.

She said: “So many women and couples experiencing infertility, early pregnancy loss, not feeling they could speak about it, not feeling they could speak in the workplace, and getting no recognition in the workplace.”

Meanwhile, the Government is progressing a proposed Pregnancy Loss Leave Bill which would provide for five days of paid leave per year for individuals who experience a pregnancy loss prior to 23 weeks’ gestation.

Labour’s Bill would also provide for up to 10 days’ leave for IVF and fertility treatment which Sherlock said is not currently provided for in law.

She said: “We feel passionately that we need to include workplace leave for those going through fertility treatment, and that is the part that Government has not recognised in their Bill that they brought this summer.”

Employees in Northern Ireland have been entitled to take parental bereavement leave and pay after experiencing a miscarriage since April.

Meanwhile, the British government said a new right to leave for workers who have suffered bereavement will cover loss during early pregnancy from April next year.