On May 7, after an induction and 15 hours of intense labor, Andres gave birth to a stillborn baby girl. The baby weighed 8 pounds and 13 ounces.
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Andres was told that maternity leave does not apply to people in her situation, but instead is used for people who “give birth and care for a healthy newborn baby.”
That’s exactly what I thought when I read the article. She shouldn’t get maternity leave, she should get bereavement leave. They are not the same thing.
Part of the point maternity leave is to allow time to physically recover from having your body ripped open. The baby being stillborn doesn’t make the birthing process any less horrifically damaging to the body.
Maternity and paternity leave both exist to allow new parents protected time to bond with and attend to their newborn. That time can certainly be used to recover physically, but there are many other medical situations that involve people’s bodies being ripped open in much worse ways, there are medical leave and disability leave for that