Teachers are expected to stand before their classes immediately after a miscarriage and pretend “everything is fine” despite fearing they might never be able to have children, an education conference has heard.
Members of the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI) have backed calls for the introduction of paid leave arrangements for those who have a miscarriage or are undergoing IVF treatment.
Amy O’Keeffe, a teacher at St Leo’s College in Carlow, said she went through 10 cycles of IVF treatment over six years.
“Each one came with its own physical toll, emotional strain, and financial cost,” she told the ASTI annual conference in Killarney. “On top of that, we experienced the heartbreak of three miscarriages along the way. IVF is not a simple medical procedure – it’s a gruelling, consuming process. Hormonal treatments, invasive scans, surgeries, and the constant emotional rollercoaster of hope and disappointment."
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As part of the the process to retrieve eggs, Ms O’Keeffe said they have to puncture the ovaries to get them out.
“I now, thankfully, am the mother of three, and I have recovered faster at times from giving birth than from having [IVF] because you are under sedation while they are puncturing your ovaries.”
She said the whole process doesn’t happen in a vacuum.
“You’re still showing up to school, standing in front of a classroom, pretending everything is fine. But the truth is – it’s not fine.”
The conference heard that teachers who had IVF treatment were concerned that taking days off was eating into their overall sick day provision of 90 days on full pay and 90 days on half pay over four years.
Ms O’Keeffe said that for each IVF cycle, she could miss an average of 10 school days.
“When you’re going through IVF or recovering from a miscarriage, you’re dealing with fatigue, pain, anxiety, and often, grief,” she said.
“And yet, under the current system, we are forced to use sick leave, unpaid leave, or beg for understanding from management who may or may not fully grasp what you’re going through.
“That’s not good enough. Teachers deserve compassion. We deserve recognition that fertility treatment and miscarriage are not optional extras – they are real, life-impacting experiences.”
Ms O’Keeffe said that unless a miscarriage happened after 26 weeks, teachers would not have any maternity leave entitlement for that pregnancy.
“There is no such thing as miscarriage leave. Going into a classroom facing children [after a miscarriage] while going through a loss, it is difficult,” she said.
“You are looking at other people’s children and you are dealing with parents and sometimes you feel like, ‘oh God, this might never be me’.”
Maria Markey Greene, a teacher at Rosmini Community School in Drumcondra, Dublin, said she has gone through several IVF cycles and the decision to do so was never easy.
“You are putting synthetic hormones into your body. You have bruises on your stomach,” she said. “The synthetic hormones themselves are a plethora of hormones, so they are making your mind and your body go through different feelings that you would not normally go through. And you are also at the front line of dealing with teenagers who themselves are going through a plethora of hormones and hormonal imbalances.”
She added: “But at the back of your mind the whole time is the hope and the prayer that it will work.”
Ms Markey Greene described having a miscarriage as “horrendous” and said at present it was covered by regular sick leave.
“A miscarriage is a bereavement. It is grief and it is grief that’s not just emotional because the hormonal effect on the body makes it physical too. So it’s a double grief,” she said.
