‘I lost my baby then I lost my job’ – one mother’s fight to change working rights

From The Guardian  authored by:Nosheen Iqbal

“Amy McKeown had been 12 weeks pregnant when she came round on her bathroom floor, blood pooling on the tiles, unable to move. Ten days earlier, in the spring of 2016, she had gone for her first scan with her husband, Matt, and their two-year-old daughter. At the appointment, a nurse told her she had miscarried; the baby had no heartbeat.

McKeown opted to let nature run its course and give birth, rather than have a procedure (dilation and curettage) or an induced labour. Her stillborn baby was born at home a few days later. McKeown ended up bedridden for six weeks, and haemorrhaged heavily for almost 10, causing frequent blackouts.

When she returned to work, she lost her job in a redundancy round as part of “a strategic business decision” by EY (Ernst & Young) as the firm exited an area of the business.

“I was worn down,” she says. “And if a family loses one of two incomes and weren’t planning for it, it’s quite a difficult thing.”

McKeown, traumatised yet emboldened by her experience, has since been fighting to change the law to ensure that women are given better employment protection, whether they get pregnant, miscarry or give birth. She has received support from her Labour MP in north London, Keir Starmer, who is helping her to set up meetings with Maria Miller, chair of the women and equalities committee.”

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