“It’s a real challenge to overcome”, “It made me so depressed, I felt so worthless”, “I cried for several days”. On social networks, the testimonies of women victims of spontaneous termination of pregnancy are legion. More commonly called “miscarriage”, the phenomenon refers to pregnancies terminated naturally before the stage of fetal viability, i.e. twenty-two weeks of amenorrhea in France (around five months). One in ten women experience a spontaneous termination of pregnancy during their lifetime, or nearly 200,000 pregnancies each year. They are often minimized, despite the trauma they can cause.
From 1er January 2024, the women concerned will be able, in agreement with their doctor, to stop working without deduction from their salary as is usually the case. During traditional sick leave, the first three days are not paid in the private sector, compared to one day in the public sector.
This measure, adopted unanimously by Parliament on June 29 as part of a law aimed at promoting psychological support for women victims of miscarriage, intends to remove a barrier which could until now have prevented them from taking the time recover. “A miscarriage can be extremely difficult, both physically and psychologically.explains Sandrine Josso, MoDem deputy for Loire-Atlantique and member of the presidential majority at the origin of the law. Eliminating this waiting period allows women to no longer be penalized economically in the event of sick leave. » The device is expected to cost eight million euros from the Social Security budget.
“Not a coquetry”
“These days of shortage were not insignificant for women, especially in the current economic context”, confirms Isabelle Derrendinger, president of the National Council of the Order of Midwives, who hopes that the measure will push more women to take it easy in the event of a miscarriage. The one who is also director of the Nantes midwifery school emphasizes the traumatic experience that spontaneous termination of pregnancy can be: “Some women can experience it as real grief. »
Sandra Lorenzo, author of the book A miscarriage like any other (First, 2022) and co-founder of the collective False couverture, true experience, salutes the end of “one of the great injustices of miscarriage management in France”. “Experiencing a spontaneous termination of pregnancy and not being able to terminate in decent conditions was a double punishment for women. Stopping work in the event of a miscarriage is not coquetry, she storms. Sometimes it takes time to get over it. »
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