The day after, she can’t even pick up her cell phone and call her GP. Her husband does that for her. Actually, Natascha Sagorski should have gone back to work, at least that’s what the doctor in the hospital said. Shortly after waking up from anesthesia following a curettage. Shortly after she lost her child. “My own miscarriage in 2019 threw me off track a lot more than I expected,” says the 38-year-old. The Munich PR consultant now knows that many women have similar experiences after a miscarriage. And that many of them get no or only a short sick leave afterwards.
In terms of employment law, anyone who loses a child in Germany before the sixth month of pregnancy is not automatically entitled to a career break. Women are only protected by maternity leave from the 24th week of pregnancy. And before? It couldn’t be, says Natascha Sagorski, she thought, that women in such a desolate physical and mental state are dependent on whether a gynecologist or family doctor issues them a sick note. Other women should not have to go to work in physical and mental pain. That is why the woman from Munich, together with four affected women, lodged a complaint with the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe this week.
Natascha Sagorski, 38, shows the sheets with the 70,000 signatures for extended maternity leave.
(Photo: Sandra Steh/Sandra Steh)
Every third pregnancy is affected
In their constitutional complaint, they call for optional maternity leave, which also protects women with miscarriages before the sixth month. Depending on the duration of a pregnancy, the women demand what is known as “staggered maternity protection”. How many weeks one is entitled to in the event of a miscarriage in each month should be clarified by an expert commission, in their opinion. “It is important to us that it is a state offer and that people can take advantage of it voluntarily,” says Natascha Sagorski. Some women would keep early pregnancies a secret from employers or decide that the distraction at work would help them more.
At work, but also in circles of friends and in families, the subject of miscarriage is usually still taboo. According to obstetrics, every third pregnancy ends in a miscarriage. Natascha Sagorski interviewed 24 women and one man for a book on this subject. “Before, I thought I was just unlucky and caught an insensitive doctor in the hospital that day.” In the meantime, more than 100 other women have contacted her. “More than half had difficulty getting sick leave,” says Sagorski. Her first political step was a petition, which gathered 70,000 votes for extending maternity leave. But, as she also knows from her political studies, decision-making and legislative processes can drag on like chewing gum. Nevertheless, she decided to expand her political commitment and founded the “Feminist Domestic Policy” association.
“We often have something like that on the table, but the majority of complaints don’t stand a chance.”
Since the miscarriage, Sagorski has also had the feeling that he has been wronged. In the summer, together with four fellow campaigners, she hired a Berlin law firm that specializes in constitutional complaints. Remo Klinger, attorney for public law, said it honestly in the online press conference on Wednesday morning: “We often have something like this on the table, but the majority of complaints don’t stand a chance,” he says. But the legal review took longer than expected. With the result that, from the point of view of the lawyer, there is a gap in protection that promotes unequal treatment: namely that women with a miscarriage from the sixth month are entitled to 18 weeks of maternity leave and if they leave earlier, not a single day. And that according to the constitution, a mother is entitled to protection even if the child does not survive.
One of the applicants, Anna, was already in the 21st week of pregnancy when she lost her child, i.e. just before the sixth month. At a time when a medium bulge on the stomach is already visible. In the press conference, she only introduces herself by her first name for her personal protection. “It’s still a birth, even if you don’t take a child home with you,” says the 30-year-old. After the caesarean section, she even had a milk ingress and continued to bleed for several days. The physical complaints are one thing, but the “interplay of physical and mental stress, that completely undermines you,” says Anna. She received sick leave for four weeks, but she had to fight for an extension.
Lawyer Remo Klinger has already warned his clients that it “may take some time” before the Federal Constitutional Court comes to a conclusion and decides whether the legislature needs to amend the Maternity Protection Act. “We would also be happy if the government passed new legislation beforehand,” says Natascha Sagorski. She hopes that women will be able to save their strength after such an experience in the future without “such a hurdle race” to get sick leave.