Holding up a picture of her seven-week scan in Seanad Éireann, Sinn Féin Senator Nicole Ryan said it was the “only evidence” that her “pregnancy ever existed”.
The scan was taken after she began bleeding and she was relieved there was a heartbeat at the time, she said.
However, two days before her 12-week scan she “knew something was wrong” when she found her sheets covered in blood. She learned later in hospital that she had had a miscarriage.
Ms Ryan was among a number of senators who spoke in the Seanad on Wednesday about their experience of miscarriage. They shared their experiences as part of a debate on Sinn Féin’s proposal to introduce paid leave for pregnancy loss.
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The Bill would entitle women to at least five days of paid leave and their partner to 2½ days. The proposed legislation would also lead to the establishment of a confidential opt-in register of pregnancy loss.
There was Opposition criticism of the Government’s move to defer the Bill by a year while it develops similar legislative proposals of its own.
Ms Ryan argued that to “delay this Bill is to traumatise even more women”. She said the proposed pregnancy loss register is “incredibly important” as the State does not recognise losses of pregnancies under 23 weeks’ gestation.
She said “pregnancy loss is one of the most common forms of bereavement and yet one of the least recognised in both society and law”.
Fine Gael Senator Linda Nelson Murray praised Ms Ryan for bringing the proposals, saying: “As someone who has suffered miscarriages myself, including my eldest daughter’s twin, I know what that ache is like for thousands of women across Ireland.”
She said pregnancy loss is often treated as “something that is silently endured”. However, she supported the Government’s argument that Sinn Féin’s plan to amend a working time law was not the best way to bring in the new leave entitlements. Amending family leave provisions or introducing standalone legislation “would form a more suitable legal basis”, she said.
Labour Senator Nessa Cosgrove also commended Ms Ryan on the Bill, saying she too has suffered a miscarriage.
Sinn Féin Senator Joanne Collins said she suffered a miscarriage when she was in a job that did not give her the option to leave her post. “I miscarried while I worked, because there was no other option,” she said, adding that there was “no system, no cover”.
Minister for Enterprise Peter Burke said his officials believe there are “significant policy challenges” to the operation of the Bill as drafted. The Seanad passed his motion that gives the Government 12 months to develop legislative proposals in line with the principles of the Sinn Féin Bill.
“I fully recognise the need to introduce leave for those who experience pregnancy loss,” he said.
