Reproductive Health and Pregnancy Loss at Work: How Winnchester Helps Employers Lead with Care
Over the last few years, we’ve helped many organisations modernise their leave frameworks – from enhanced parental leave through to paid family and domestic violence leave. The next area of focus is emerging around pregnancy loss, stillbirth, early infant loss and broader reproductive health.
This isn’t just about compliance. It goes to how your organisation shows up for people at some of the hardest points in their lives.
What’s on the horizon?
Two themes are worth keeping on your radar.
Employer-paid leave for stillbirth and early infant loss
The federal government has committed to amending the Fair Work Act so that where employers provide paid parental leave, they are also required to provide paid leave in the event of a stillbirth or early infant loss.
This is aimed at ensuring parents are not left without income during acute grief.
Timing is still to be confirmed, but it is clearly a policy priority.
Reproductive health and gendered health conditions
There is growing advocacy for specific reproductive health leave, potentially covering:
Fertility treatment and IVF
Miscarriage and pregnancy loss
Debilitating menstrual symptoms
Menopause-related health issues
While the government has not yet legislated this, expectations are clearly shifting.
Why we are encouraging clients to act now
We’re already seeing:
Employees more willing to share experiences of fertility treatment, loss and menopause
Boards and investors viewing these issues through the lens of gender equity and psychosocial safety
Organisations proactively adopting policies to align with their values and position themselves as employers of choice
How Winnchester can help you prepare
Start with a whole-of-policy review
We look across your existing settings for:
Paid and unpaid parental leave
Personal/carer’s and compassionate leave
Flexible work and WHS/psychosocial risk frameworks
Key questions include:
Do your policies explicitly recognise stillbirth and neonatal death, or is support left to case-by-case discretion?
Is reproductive health mentioned anywhere, or is it effectively invisible?
Strengthen support around stillbirth and pregnancy loss
Ahead of legislative change, many organisations are choosing to:
Confirm that paid parental leave continues, or is triggered, in the event of stillbirth
Add clear wording so employees and managers aren’t negotiating arrangements in the middle of a crisis
Provide short, practical guidance for leaders on how to respond with care and confidentiality
Clarify your position on reproductive health leave
There is no single “right” model, but options we work through with clients include:
Offering a defined allocation of paid reproductive health leave each year
Explicitly confirming that personal leave can be used for menstrual, menopause or fertility-related needs
Building flexible work design into roles so people can adjust when symptoms are severe
Embed this in WHS and leadership capability
Reproductive health and pregnancy loss intersect with psychosocial risk obligations:
We help you link policies into your WHS hazard identification and controls
We design leader training that covers how to listen, respond appropriately and avoid both over-reach and avoidance
Communicate with care, not just compliance language
We recommend plain, warm language in policy summaries and employee communications.
The emphasis should be on support and discretion: staff should not have to disclose more than they are comfortable sharing to access help.
How Winnchester can support your next steps
We can:
Review your existing leave and flexibility framework with this lens.
Draft or update policies and manager guides in clear, human language.
Help you phase changes in a way that fits your size, risk profile and budget.
If you’d like to explore what a more considerate, gender-aware leave framework could look like in your organisation, we can work through practical options with you.
