Recovery after losing our baby…

Hi, I’m Breanna. On Wednesday 12/27/2023 my husband Brandon and I went in for a routine ultrasound appointment for our baby boy Caspian Jaye at 16 weeks 4 days pregnant. It was then that we discovered our sweet boy no longer had a heartbeat. I had to be induced later that day. I labored for 18 miserable hours as the pain medication didn’t really work for me, and gave birth to our sleeping boy at 8:20am on 12/28. After 5 more hours of trying to deliver the placenta, I was losing a scary amount of blood and had to have emergency surgery to remove the placenta. I will have the same post partum symptoms as any other mother, and I while dealing with our own grief, we are trying to guide our 8 year old daughter in navigating the grief of the baby brother she was so excited to have.

According to my workplace, I do not qualify for maternity leave (even though I literally labored, gave birth, and had to have surgery to remove the placenta). They said I get ONE day of paid bereavement (which I already used). My other option is when my PTO get reloaded on 1/1/2024 as I can exhaust my ENTIRE YEAR of PTO and then be unpaid the rest of my 2 month leave. My husband is a server at a restaurant and does not have any PTO or benefits.

I hate that I am in a situation where we have to worry about paying our bills while making arrangements at a funeral home for our son. Any help would be appreciated during this difficult time. I wasn’t sure what to make the goal because I don’t know what this grief will look like. Thank you. We love you Caspian Jaye.