My Lords, Amendments 266D and 266E deal with multiple births. Amendment 266D seeks to allow additional leave and Amendment 266E seeks to allow additional maternity pay, both in proportion to the number of births.
I believe that these amendments are necessary due to the intense additional pressures that parents of multiple births face over those of single births. As a grandfather of twins, I can certainly testify to the truth of that. Currently both groups receive the same entitlements to pay and leave. Maternal stays during birth admissions are 60% to 70% longer for multiple births than single births. Even prior to birth, expectant mothers of multiple births are six times more likely to be admitted into hospital and more than twice as likely to be admitted into intensive care as expectant mothers of single babies.
In addition, twins are 10 times more likely to be admitted to neonatal special care units; 44% of twins and 91% of triplets are born prematurely and spend time in neonatal care. On average, parents of multiple births spend a larger proportion of their maternity and paternity leave in neonatal units, and both mothers and children are more likely to face serious health complications. All this reduces the amount of time that parents have to bond with their children and settle into parental life. They have less time to do what parents of single children have to do, even though they have more children to do it with. It is an alarming fact that 20% of mothers of multiple births suffer from postnatal depression, double the proportion of mothers of single children.
Parents of multiple births do not merely face additional emotional and health issues but financial ones. They are far more likely to experience economic hardship in the first 18 months of their children’s lives than parents of a single child. A report published this year by the Twins and Multiple Births Association, titled Multiple Births Parents’ Experience of Maternity and Paternity Leave, revealed that 61% of respondents did not have enough maternity and paternity pay to cover the cost of their leave. In order to get by, 32% stated that they
put money on their credit card and they could not pay it off in full at the end of the month. More than half the respondents built up debt and a quarter built up debt of more than £2,000.
It is abundantly clear that parents of multiple births face very real additional challenges compared to their peers. Nevertheless, the current system treats both groups in the same manner. These amendments seek to introduce an element of responsiveness within the system to the very real difficulties faced by those who experience multiple births, in order to create a modern system of maternity leave.
I hope that the Minister will also consider taking prematurity into account in maternity leave legislation. It could be achieved by simply using “babies expected” rather than their actual due date when calculating maternity leave. I hope he will respond to that. I beg to move.
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