Regina Doherty (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome some guests in the Gallery. The couple who originally came to me many years ago with this issue, Caroline and Martin Smith, are here. It has taken us this long to get a resolution. They are very welcome today. They are accompanied by Anne-Marie Murtagh, Sarah Behan, Georgina Culshaw and Mary Halford. They are all very welcome and I am glad they are here today.

I am introducing a Bill the concept of which is the most simple, unoffensive little item of legislation that introduces a non-statutory register for the tremendous loss that thousands of families and women feel every year. In my heart, it is hard to believe that this did not already exist. It is incredibly frustrating to know that I was the Minister responsible for the General Register Office when Caroline and Martin first came to me. Considerable blockages were put in the way of the then Minister, who was myself, in order to be able to achieve something that is humongous for the people who lose their loved members of their family. It is such a small thing for the State to do to recognise that loss and the life that was their family member.

I am incredibly proud of the little body of work we have done over the past number of years to be able to stand here with the actual pieces of paper in my hand, with my name on it and the name of my co-sponsor of this Bill, Senator Seery Kearney. It represents years of work of the families represented here. There are so many more families. In this country we are not good at speaking about loss, we tend to bottle it up and keep quiet. Even when we know somebody else has lost a baby we tend not to speak to them because we do not know what to say to them. Therefore it might not be commonly known that every year 15,000 pregnancies are lost in miscarriage. One in five women who get pregnant every year lose their baby at some point during the term of the pregnancy. I say this and it sounds wrong but those who are fortunate enough to lose a baby after 24 weeks or if the baby has reached the milestone of 500 g when the baby is born, they get a document, a stillbirth register, and the State acknowledges both the life and the loss of that much-wanted child. However this does not apply for those whose baby is born what could be days before that arbitrary definition of a stillbirth that is laid down by the WHO, which was one of the reasons we could not or were not permitted to apply this register a number of years ago. A baby that might be only 1 g shy of the 500 g or one day shy does not exist in the eyes of the State. It never hiccupped in the womb, never turned, it just does not exist. For those parents involved that is not acceptable. Apart from the State having an obligation to recognise families in their entirety in all their shapes and forms and their gains, it is also the State’s responsibility to look after the losses of families and to recognise the loss.

This non-statutory register is not going to confer any rights, any financial benefit or any social welfare protections, and maybe it should but that is another day’s work. All it is going to do is acknowledge the life and the loss of a baby that does not reach the stillbirth definition laid down by the WHO. To my mind what we have done for years is wholly disrespect the grief and probably in many cases interrupt the grieving process of families who have lost babies. We had these conversations over the years in regard to other legislation. We all agree as mammies, and Senator Seery Kearney said it last week when we introduced the Bill, when you do that first pregnancy test, and sometimes you do it a second and third time just to be absolutely sure, the two lines means there is a baby in there. There is a lovely Fruit of the Womb calendar that shows you what the baby is like at four weeks’ gestation. It likens it to fruits, so you go from having a strawberry to having a melon. It is a wonderful experience. As Senator Seery Kearney said last week, a whole life is lived in the first couple of hours. What we have done to all of these families, the 15,000 families every year, for as long as this has existed, is halt their grieving process because we have not recognised that they have actually lost anything. That is inherently wrong.

Today’s register will absolutely allow those women, families, people who lose babies between the time of being medically certified as pregnant right up to and before reaching the milestone of 500 g or 24 weeks. If you unfortunately lose your baby during that time you are going to be allowed to apply for a register that shows that the State acknowledges both the life and the loss. That is all it is going to do. It is not something to be afraid of. A number of people contacted me last week who were afraid it will do something to some other legislation or infer rights. First of all we should have rights. The only thing this will give a right to is for families to have a legal and statutory, even though it is non-statutory, recognition and certificate of the baby they were carrying and lost that does not reach the milestones as set down by the medical definitions. For Caroline and Martin and their little man who was actually born and passed away seven years ago today, the timing of this Bill is down to the universe because it was not anything to do with me or with Senator Seery Kearney. It is the universe telling me that this is absolutely the right thing to do. It was absolutely the right thing for that wonderful couple to keep nagging me for all the years that they have nagged me to make sure that we got to this stage.

I want to say on the record and to the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, who I thank for being here today, that I am incredibly pleased that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Humphreys, has asked Cabinet not to oppose this Bill. I do not know how I would feel today if that were not the case. The feedback from my Seanad colleagues is that they are all supportive of this Bill because it is incredibly simple but powerful. I will ask that we do Committee and Report Stages together given that there will not be any opposition to it. We may do it very quickly so that we can get this Bill into the Dáil. Because there is not an equivalent of my role in the Dáil, and Senator Seery Kearney and I are both the co-sponsors, I ask the Minister of State, Deputy Peter Burke, to comment or at least come back to me as to whether, if and when the Bill passes this House, the Minister will take it in her own name to the Lower House and to pass it and put it on our Statute Book in order that very shortly, we will be able to issue the certificates to any of the 15,000 women and families who have lost a baby this year, and every year going forward.