A council in London has become one of the first employers in the UK to introduce extended maternity and paternity leave for all staff whose babies are born prematurely.
The move has been called "great" by Catriona Ogilvy, founder of The Smallest Things, a charity campaigning to support parents of premature babies.
In 2015, Ogilvy started a petition to get extended parental leave for parents of premature babies, which gathered 140,000 signatures. It's a cause close to her heart as her son Sam, now six, was born unexpectedly early at 30 weeks.
"It's great to hear that, following The Smallest Things campaign to give parents more time off, Waltham Forest Council is extending parental leave for staff affected by premature birth," she told HuffPost UK. "It will make a huge difference to those families and I hope that other councils follow their lead.
"We don't know of any other companies that have done this and believe that Waltham Forest is the first council to do so."
