Still-Birth (Definition) Bill [HL]

Baroness Featherstone Excerpts

Friday 4th July 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Featherstone (LD)]

My Lords, I am so very glad that my noble friend Lady Benjamin has brought this issue to the Floor of the House. Two things in particular drove me to speak in this debate. Not long ago, I was listening to a programme on the radio about early stillbirth and listening to mothers talking about their feelings of loss and how emotionally debilitating it was to find that there was nothing—nothing to support you emotionally or financially, and nothing to legally mark that loss, except, as has been mentioned, the recent change which enabled one to get a certificate of loss acknowledging your baby’s existence. The loss of a baby is profound at any stage of a pregnancy. Women with this experience were saying things on the radio such as, “It felt like the world moved on in seconds, but I was frozen in grief. Everyone thought it was early, but to me, it was absolutely everything”.

The second thing was that it made me remember my first pregnancy. I started bleeding at about eight weeks and had to take to my bed to rest. I was terrified that I would lose my baby. I did not. I was fortunate, and that baby is now 41. The feeling of potential loss and the fear was absolutely shattering and affected me for the whole of the rest of my pregnancy. That was at just eight weeks.

This much-needed move to 20 weeks will be hugely significant in helping to reduce some of the horror and sadness and in acknowledging and marking the time needed for healing. Many parents experience profound grief after a loss before the current 24 weeks. Current legal or financial definitions can invalidate that experience. The mother who loses her baby at 20 weeks will often endure the same medical processes as one who delivers at 24 weeks. She may labour, she may require surgery and she will certainly require care. Yet the moment she leaves hospital, she finds that there is no recognition of her child—and until recently there was no certificate. There is no access to statutory bereavement leave or financial support. Her grief, while intensely personal, is made all the more isolating by its lack of societal acknowledgement. It is time that we changed that.

Advances in medical imaging mean that many anomalies and most pregnancy complications are now identified at, or shortly after, the 20-week scan. The clinical, emotional and psychological experience of loss at this stage often mirrors that of stillbirth, yet the law continues to draw this sharp line at 24 weeks—a line that was originally based on neonatal viability in the 20th century, not bereavement realities of the 21st.

There is no statutory acknowledgement of the grief that many women and their partners feel at such a loss. That sense is profound. I say again a big thank you to my noble friend Lady Benjamin. Recognising losses from 20 weeks onwards emotionally acknowledges the reality that attachment, planning and love will begin well before viability. Offering support at 20 weeks helps to remove arbitrary emotional hierarchies of grief. Also, many people feel isolated and abandoned because their losses “don’t count” legally. Changing this threshold, as well as mitigating some of the financial stress and enabling some time to recover, also signals that all loss matters, regardless of length of gestation.

By April this year, over 100,000 baby loss certificates had been issued. Miscarriages and losses at 20 to 24 weeks are often treated similarly to stillbirths in clinical practice, so it is totally appropriate that legal recognition and support aligns with what is happening on the ground. Many hospitals and care providers already offer bereavement care, memorials and leave paperwork for losses around 20 weeks. Aligning state support with current clinical norms will create consistency and reduce confusion. Most importantly, parents who lose a baby between 20 and 24 weeks may need time off work, counselling or funeral support, and they are not always eligible for paid leave or benefits. Offering that support at 20 weeks helps avoid financial hardship during what is already a hugely traumatic time.

This touches thousands of families each year yet remains too often hidden. Extending state support from 20 to 24 weeks is not an act of extravagance. It is a modest, meaningful gesture that says, “We see you, and loss matters”. The noble Baroness and the right reverend Prelate have already raised the issues around termination, whether medical or by choice. I will not go there, but it is covered and it is an important point. I would not support any Bill that made life worse for people who are faced with that decision.

So this is a compassionate Bill targeted to an existing framework and designed to bring equity. I urge this House to consider the emotional truth and the practical necessity of this change and to stand on the side of parents who are simply asking to have their grief recognised, their child acknowledged and their dignity preserved.