Northern Ireland<\/a> are estimated to be affected by a miscarriage, either experienced by them or their partner.<\/p>\n![\"Economy](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/9fbe907059ff8ef29fd6d26d468c17d1.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n
Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald said the new rights allowed women who experienced miscarriage and their partner to take up to two weeks of paid leave (Liam McBurney\/PA) (PA Wire)<\/p>\n
Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald, who sought the Assembly\u2019s approval for the new rule on Tuesday, said Northern Ireland would become the only region in the UK or Ireland to provide paid bereavement leave and pay to parents who suffered pregnancy loss through miscarriage, adding it would make a meaningful difference.<\/p>\n
She said: “Parents who suffer the loss of a child should be treated with care and compassion.”<\/p>\n
The Minister added: “These new rights allow women who experience miscarriage and their partner to take up to two weeks of paid leave to grieve and to support each other during a very difficult time.<\/p>\n
\u201cI welcome the Assembly\u2019s approval of these regulations, which will make a meaningful difference to many women and families across the north.”<\/p>\n
The regulations would also make parental bereavement leave and pay a day-one right for workers, abolishing the qualifying period of 26 weeks of continuous employment.<\/p>\n
The department confirmed the policy would require only a declaration of entitlement, and not demand medical evidence at a distressing time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Caoimhe Archibald speaking to the media at Parliament Building at Stormont in Belfast (Liam McBurney\/PA) (PA Archive) Northern…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":847828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[28985,17560,1144,29582,153936,242155,16,15],"class_list":["post-847827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-caoimhe-archibald","tag-miscarriage","tag-northern-ireland","tag-paid-leave","tag-pregnancy-loss","tag-the-assembly","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116286067030488264","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=847827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/847827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/847828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=847827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=847827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=847827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Caoimhe](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/7ae43a5c549dc350db3361d8f1b5d8ae.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n