Coping with the devastating loss of your baby

Maternity and paternity rights

For full advice, see these websites or ask your Benefits office:

• www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/ni17a
• www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/ni17a/spp/spp.asp
• www.dti.gov.uk/er/maternity.htm
• www.tiger.gov.uk
• www.tiger.gov.uk/maternity/employer_april03/miscarriage.htm

'Fathers are entitled to paternity leave too. We didn't know this until two months after our twins died.' walshy2005

Birth of a live baby at any time during pregnancy

If your baby is born alive at ANY time in your pregnancy (no matter how premature or how brief their life, born before or after 24 weeks), this is a live birth. Your baby may only have lived for moments before he or she died but your baby's birth and death will be registered as such and you are entitled to maternity/paternity benefit and leave in the usual way.

'Even if the baby survives only for an instant it is a live birth.' Dept for Work and Pensions. For more information see www.dwp.gov.uk/advisers/ni17a

Stillbirth before 24 completed weeks

If your baby is stillborn before 24 weeks, you are not entitled to maternity and paternity benefit or leave. If you take sickness absence from work, you should be paid your contractual sick pay, or Statutory Sick Pay if there is no contractual sick pay scheme.

Stillbirth after 24 completed weeks

If your baby died in the womb after 24 completed weeks (e.g. confirmed by an ultrasound of gestational size), you are entitled to maternity/paternity benefit and leave (Statutory Maternity/Paternity Pay or Maternity Allowance) in the usual way.

In some cases, baby may be known to have died in the womb before 24 completed weeks (e.g. proved at an ultrasound scan). If this is the case, sadly you are not entitled to maternity and paternity benefit or leave and can take sickness absence as described above.

This is because UK Law considers stillbirth to happen after 24 weeks of pregnancy and pregnancy is defined as 'a female having a developing baby in her uterus' so the pregnancy ended at the time of death.

Rarely, the time of baby's death is unclear so baby's development will be used to indicate the time of death. If there is any doubt, time of death is given as after 24 weeks. Cases will be agreed individually with the medical professionals involved and the decision and reasons must be clearly detailed in the mother's notes in case any queries arise.

'If you aren't entitled to maternity leave, get your GP to sign you off sick. I was signed off sick for a month and could have gone back and asked for more if I needed it. In some ways I think I should have done but didn't. My midwife assured me they would have signed me off work for months if need be. It felt odd being off work for so long as physically I felt a lot better the day after my twins were born (I'd had ongoing morning sickness, tiredness, etc) but I did need a good amount of time and space to grieve.' Alison