A NEW councillor has bravely spoken out about the trauma she went through after she suffered a miscarriage.

When Kirsty Law attended a 12-week scan during a previous pregnancy she was given the devastating news her baby had stopped growing at eight weeks.

Mum of two Kirsty, who comes from Port Glasgow but now lives in Greenock, says she felt a wave of of 'grief, loss and shock'.

She decided to speak out about her experience after the council recently agreed to offer more help to staff affected by the loss of a baby.

NHS figures estimate that one in eight pregnancies end in miscarriage but Kirsty says she has only found it easier to speak about her ordeal as it was some time ago.

She said: “It’s such a common experience.

“I know of several of my friends, who also experienced pregnancy loss, so you’re not alone.

“I found out I was pregnant and went for my 12-week scan thinking everything was okay, and I got told that the baby had stopped growing at eight weeks.

“I was given the option to see if I would miscarry naturally, but given the fact it was a four-week [period] in between and I hadn’t, I decided to go through with the procedure to get it surgically removed.

“The problem that you then have — I hadn’t even told my family that I was pregnant in the first place — is this kind of grief, loss and shock, all these things, and nobody even knows you’re going through it.

“I spoke to a few family members afterwards to tell them I was really upset, and the repercussions of it were that it made me almost obsessional about replacing the loss.

“I felt like I just wanted to get pregnant again, so that I could, I don’t know, recover from it.

“It took a wee while to get over.

“It took me over a year after that to get pregnant with my daughter, so it was quite an emotional turmoil."

Kirsty, 37, was recently elected as an SNP councillor for Inverclyde East Central.

She is pleased the local authority's policy and resources committee has agreed that council staff who suffer a pregnancy loss at any stage will now get two weeks leave on full pay.

When the decision was taken during a Municipal Buildings meeting she said: “Having personally experienced early pregnancy loss, I think it’s important to acknowledge it’s not just over 24 weeks that it has an emotional effect on people."

The local authority will now sign a pledge with the Miscarriage Association to ensure its workers are properly supported.

The law entitles parents to at least two weeks of statutory paid leave if they suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy or the death of a child under the age of 18.

However, a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks is considered a miscarriage and parents would not be entitled to maternity leave or pay or parental bereavement leave.

The council will enhance its provisions to offer all parents two weeks of full pay if they suffer a pregnancy loss at any time or lose a child up to the age of 18.

Councillor Law, a member of the committee, said: “I’m really pleased that men are included in this as well, because you’re going through it together and you’re both thinking that you’re about to have a baby.

“In some of these situations, men are forgotten about, to a certain extent, so it’s important to have that protection as well.

“It also creates a culture and a workplace where you feel like you can be more open about things, which is also encouraging.

“The emotional impact of losing a baby — and the mental health issues that can follow from that — can sometimes become attached to the stigma of that sort of thing, so it’s good to make sure that all these factors are considered and you’ve got that wee bit of cushion and time to process it.”

Kirsty feels the council’s decision to offer extra support to its employees will make a big difference.

She added: “At the time I had a really supportive workplace, so I was thankful for that, but also friends would open up and say, ‘that happened to me,’ and you start to realise how common it is, but how little people actually talk about it.

“These policies being put in place create that safe space to say, these are everyday issues that we’re all facing.

“You don’t just get pregnant and have the baby every time.

"There’s lots of stuff that can happen at any stage in the pregnancy.

“This is recognising that no matter what stage it’s at, it has an impact on you.”