Nova Scotia expands bereavement leave to include miscarriage and stillbirths

BY PAUL JUNOR

The news that Nova Scotia has expanded bereavement leave to include miscarriages and stillbirths caught everyone by surprise. It was reported that Liberal MLA Lorelei Nichol introduced a private members bill that will include pregnancy loss as part of Nova Scotia’s workplace bereavement leave. She states in the legislature, “I am thankful we have been able to look beyond partisanship towards the greater good and find ways to better support parents.” She knows personally having seen her daughter’s experience of stillbirth.

The amended labour law will ensure that women who endure sudden and undue pregnancy loss will get five consecutive days of unpaid leave with the potential that it could change to paid time off. In addition, employees could have protection against losing their jobs. Some of these added protections for employees are already enshrined in the laws of several provinces and the federal government in Canada. There are an estimated 3,000 stillbirths every year in Canada.

There have been concerns about whether the increase in the number of stillbirths in Canada is directly related to the introduction of COVID-19 vaccination two years ago. A Global News’ report did not mention anything about the effect of the vaccine rollout. According to Statistics Canada, there were 3,191 fetal deaths (stillbirths) in Canada where the fetus was at 20 weeks or more of gestation, resulting in a fetal death rate of 8.6 per 1,000 total births (live births and fetal births). For 2021, the number of stillbirths was 3,234.

According to the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) Ontario, there have been questions about how the COVID-19 virus and COVID-19 vaccinations might affect stillbirth rates. It answers the first part of the question by stating that the rate of stillbirth among pregnant individuals with COVID-19 infection was twice as high as in the general population.

It presents data to show that there is no indication of higher rates of stillbirth in individuals who received one or more doses before or during pregnancy. For the period January 1^st, 2021 – October 31^st, 2021, there were 140 stillbirths out of a total of 36,582 pregnant women who had one or more vaccine doses received before or during pregnancy, which represents 0.38 % compared to 391 stillbirths out of 80,957 pregnant women who were either unvaccinated or vaccinated after pregnancy which represents 0.48 %. The full report can be seen at the website: bornontario.ca

There is a note of caution, which revealed that a more detailed study is presently in process to account for other factors that could affect stillbirth. It advises that it is important to note that the data table only presents basic numbers and does not take into consideration when an individual received the vaccine, or other factors that can affect stillbirth such as: age of the mother, pregnancy, complications, smoking, COVID infection etc.

An article published in the New Scientist titled, “COVID-19 vaccines in pregnancy not linked to miscarriage or stillbirth,” acknowledges that there has been a lack of clarity, over the increased risks of COVID-19 and vaccines during pregnancy throughout much of the pandemic, with research now overwhelmingly supporting that pregnant people get vaccinated.

A further study titled, “Risk of preterm birth, small for gestational age at birth, and stillbirth after COVID-19 vaccination during pregnancy: population based retrospective study,” indicates that there are no related risks to pregnant women from taking the vaccine.