Bereavement leave

Løvemammaene has submitted a consultation response to the Storting regarding the need for bereavement leave for parents who have lost a child. It is Løvemammaene's child palliation project Carry together who have written the consultation response, and the Løvemammaene have also signed a joint consultation response from the Grief Support Alliance.

Below you can read our response to the consultation in its entirety.

Written input to representative proposal 45S (2023-2024) on the introduction of bereavement leave for parents who have lost a child 

The organization Løvemammaene supports the proposal that the Storting asks the government to come up with a proposal that gives parents who have lost a child the right to bereavement leave.  

Løvemammaene is a diagnosis-independent organization that works to inform about and improve the rights of children and young people with illness and functional variation. We are passionate about support, freedom and equality for the whole family. As of 10.12.23, we have over 7,600 members. The lion mothers work particularly with child palliation in the project Carry Together, and through Løvemammaeneen's help service. The work consists of assisting members with children who have life-threatening illnesses and/or an expected shortened lifespan, and providing support in the time after the family loses the child.  

The Løvemammaen want a scheme to be introduced with the right to bereavement leave for all parents who lose a child (from childbirth in the 22nd week of pregnancy until the child turns 18).  

We also ask that consideration be given to possible exemption arrangements for parents who lose young people (18-23 years) with mental retardation, palliative conditions and long-term illness, who live at home and for whom the parents have had primary care.  

A bereavement leave will recognize grief for the process it is, and for the variety of reactions that can occur and which affect the parents' capacity to function in their own everyday life and at work.  

 
Bereavement leave will be able to give the parents the opportunity, space and peace in the first period after the child's death, without having to feel that society does not recognize the grief and the grief reactions they have. As it is today, you have to take "detours" via sick leave, so that parents who are temporarily unable to work as a result of grief/bereavement reactions get the peace of mind they need. Research and professional knowledge have clearly shown that grief can make you unable to work in periods, even though grief is a normal reaction and not an illness.  

Granted bereavement leave should include close follow-up, and individually tailored help for the person concerned to process their grief. We would particularly like to emphasize that many of our members who lose their children have been in parenthood with years of burdensome caring responsibilities and many have also provided extensive health care for their children. The extent to which they are able to thematise the possibility of returning to working life during the bereavement leave will be entirely individual. For some, this will be an absolutely necessary catch-up and restitution period, where care and rest must be given priority. For others, a gradual return to work may be relevant. For the Løvemammaene, it is essential that parents are able to work again when they first return to working life, and not that it should be a matter of returning as quickly as possible, in order to possibly not be able to work over time.  

With best regards  

The lion mothers