A woman dies in childbirth. Is she the surviving birthing partner or the surviving non birthing partner

[FannyCann]

Discussion re shared parental leave when a new mother dies in childbirth. Darren Henry seems at best confused, at worst doesn't seem to understand the legal status of mothers.

https://twitter.com/darrenghenry/status/1587791546585333763?s=61&t=YY_Bc3-ipYs7eO3Y2ymVvlw

I'm very confused

His speech is a mess. Thankfully Rishi Sunak understood what he was talking about.

Absolutely demonstrating why clear communication about pregnancy and birth is so important.

www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fgwh.2022.818856/full

After the death of a baby, this is the most important thing to discuss?

I think its important. That dad is the child's sole carer now so there should be something in place that allows him to have a year off.

She isn't the 'surviving' anything. She's (very sadly) dead. The father is the 'surviving' one.

But the mp talked about surviving birthing partner and surviving non birthing partner. I've listened to it several times and have no idea what he is trying to say.

I assume he means that when a woman dies in childbirth the father of the child should be entitled to sufficient parental leave to enable him to look after the baby. It would be helpful if he could discuss it in those terms.

I was shocked that he wasn't entitled to a years leave.
Poor baby. The mother obviously can't have maternity leave so I don't understand why he can't have it a shared parental leave which is surely so that if the mother can't/won't/doesn't want maternity leave the father can have it. Is he supposed to put a 2 week old baby in day care?

If she dies in childbirth she is neither - she has died not survived.

I understood him perfectly. Your title on the other hand…

Talking about birthing and non-birthing parents here rather than mothers and fathers makes sense because the surviving parent could be male or female.

Presumably he is being inclusive about a relationship where two women are having a baby, one is the birthing partner and one is the non birthing partner. I suppose the non birthing female partner would be in the same position as this man. I suspect he was trying to avoid someone saying he was ignoring lesbian couples.

I think we need to think of what is best for the baby and I think the baby is entitled to have their surviving parent around for a year.

Surely whoever hasn't died is most straightforwardly described as the surviving parent?

Presumably he is being inclusive about a relationship where two women are having a baby, one is the birthing partner and one is the non birthing partner. I suppose the non birthing female partner would be in the same position as this man. I suspect he was trying to avoid someone saying he was ignoring lesbian couples.

I think we need to think of what is best for the baby and I think the baby is entitled to have their surviving parent around for a year.

Having watched the video, I agree that he is being inclusive of lesbian couples.

Yes and surely 'birthing partner' is always the mother

Surviving partner would have sufficed

Yes me too.

Perhaps he got in a muddle. He said there is a disparity regarding shared parental leave. "The current eligibility requirements differ between that of the surviving birthing partner as compared to the surviving non birthing partner".
Maybe that is how it is written in the law. But in that case it doesn't apply here anyway because the MOTHER died.
Sadly women do die in childbirth but for the lucky rest of us who don't I think the correct word is mother rather than referring to a "surviving birthing partner".
And women who die in childbirth are still mothers. The baby will grow up knowing he doesn't have a mother to send a card to on Mother's Day.

Yes. Is he saying there's a difference depending on which parent has survived?

But one partner will always survive! The one who didn't give birth.

And in this case the one who gave birth didn't survive. So why was he talking about surviving birthing partners!

But that would be confusing where there are two mothers

This is a perfect example of how avoiding clear language makes discussing very real issues complicated.

that the father does not automatically have a sufficient paternity leave in this situation is shocking. I am so used to seeing private company policies that make sure a couple can make their own choices for infant care while also providing for the necessity of recovery time for women who experience childbirth. You start to assume those private policies reflect the law, not just companies wanting to attract and retain employees.

The case he was talking about involved a man and a woman. A mother who died and a bereaved father.

His language isnt clear.

But I think he means if both parents survive- so surviving birthing and non-birthing partner their parental leave is disparate.

I think you are focusing on the wrong thing. Obviously if a mother dies then the father should be able to get the time off work that she would have had. This seems like something everyone should be able to agree on.

Yeah but I think he wants the leave to affect all couples whether the mother lives or not.

Not if they die not in childbirth