When Morgan had confirmation of a miscarriage in the Early Pregnancy Unit, (EPU), her heart broke into a million pieces. For two days she barely spoke. She didn’t eat or sleep and had no guidance on what would happen next. 

When she contacted her workplace, she was told she’d get a maximum of 10 days paid leave. Morgan doesn’t believe 10 days off work is enough for a parent to recover physically and emotionally from a miscarriage.

“When we first had that positive pregnancy test it was a huge shock to us both however, we immediately fell in love with the small foetus that was growing inside. 

At week nine, I started getting pain but not the pain that they describe as a warning, but I took myself to A&E to get everything checked out. After a four hour wait, I was told by the nurse that gynaecology wouldn’t see me because I have not had any bleeding despite a positive urine test for blood in the urine. No other testing was completed, and I was sent home with antibiotics and painkillers and told it was possibly a kidney infection. 

Three days later I started bleeding heavily. Absolutely petrified I went back to A&E, where I had another urine test to confirm that I was pregnant and finally a blood test. A gynaecologist reviewed me and said that my cervix was closed and that there was a higher level of hormone but not the level of an eight-to-nine-week pregnancy so the dates must be wrong. I had no other symptoms so was told to go home and to come back if I had pain or fever, and a referral to Early Pregnancy Unit (EPU) was completed. 

Between this and an appointment with EPU three days later, the bleeding got worse, but EPU said there was no appointments, so I’d have to wait for the one I had booked. 

Now to that day: our whole world crumbled when we had confirmation of a miscarriage and our hearts broke into a million pieces. My whole body hurt. I hated myself, my body felt like it completely shut down and for two days I barely spoke. I didn’t eat, didn’t sleep, I had no guidance on what’s next, I was just told “take these booklets and you’ll get a phone call in two days’ time.”

I contacted my workplace who told me as it was a miscarriage I’d get a maximum of 10 days paid leave. I was told if I had made it to 24 weeks then I could have had maternity leave. ‘If I had made it to 24 weeks’ - how inconsiderate and rude. I had a nine week, five day baby that I was growing, that baby had developed to look like a baby, despite being very small it was still a baby but because that precious soul was not past 24 weeks, I could only take 10 days. 10 days to grieve a tiny baby. You get more than that with the loss of a direct family member. I was told that I’d only be given 10 days to grieve the loss of my baby. My body still delivered, I still went through postpartum, my body was in fight or flight. That’s without the amount of blood loss, the emotional toll and the physical toll. 10 days off work is not enough for a parent to recover from a miscarriage.”