Elena Andres was looking forward to welcoming her daughter into the world. Everything changed, however, after she experienced food poisoning symptoms when she was 37 weeks pregnant. Instead of welcoming her daughter with joy, she had to say goodbye, and in the hardest time of her life, she was denied the time to heal and mourn.
On May 6, with only three weeks left in her pregnancy, Elena was told her daughter no longer had a heartbeat.
The day after Elena was told her daughter no longer had a heartbeat, she had to go to the hospital and deliver her baby, according to Today.
At the hospital, Elena went through an induction, a 15-hour intense labor, and gave birth to her daughter still, weighing 8 lbs. and 13 oz.
Elena named her daughter Maxine, and the entire experience was, understandably, traumatic.
“It was very traumatic," Elena told Today. "Immediately when they held her up you could just tell — she was gray. She was gone."
Going home without her baby, the grieving mother set out to heal and grieve. Elena worked for the City of Austin in the Austin Public Health Department, so she informed HR that she would “be taking maternity leave a little bit early” because her daughter was born three weeks early.
However, she was denied maternity leave.
“They said: 'Oh, I'm sorry to hear that, but you don't qualify for (leave) anymore,'" Elena told Today.
She was told that in her situation — having given birth but not able to bring her baby home — maternity leave does not apply. She also was told that maternity leave is for people who "give birth and care for a healthy newborn baby."
“I felt so small, like they were saying my pregnancy didn’t count,” Elena told the Texas Tribune, which first reported the story. “Like my daughter didn’t count.”
“Apparently our paid maternity leave is only for bonding with the newborn,” she said. “It’s not for recovering from birth. … The whole pregnancy, physically, whatever it does to the body of the person, they don’t care about.
“It was like a kick in the face,” she added.
The postpartum period was really hard on Elena.
"I couldn't walk normally for a week," she told Today. "My pelvic pain made it impossible to sleep. I had the normal bleeding that occurs after a pregnancy for two months straight.
"My milk came in — that was horrible," she continued. "I had to put cabbage and ice (on my breasts) to help with the swelling. It was miserable — a constant reminder of what happened. The body doesn't just go back to normal."
After the City of Austin was contacted by 'Today,' officials said they would do what they could.
A spokesperson for the City of Austin told the news outlet that "the loss of a child is an unthinkable tragedy for any parent" and that they "will ensure any city employee experiencing such a devastating loss receives the support and time they need."
"While the death of a child is not covered under FMLA, there are several other leave options available in the City, such as accrued leave, emergency leave and the City’s leave bank that fellow employees contribute to," the spokesperson added.
"We care for and value our staff members and are continuously looking for ways to provide needed support and will update policies to do so when those needs become evident. Our Human Resources Department is currently developing a leave program for when an employee loses a child for consideration and approval by City leadership," the statement continued.
In the end, Elena was able to scrape together some time off to heal.
Typically, City of Austin employees can take eight weeks of paid parental leave after “the birth of a child or the placement of a child for adoption or foster care,” per the policy, the Texas Tribune explained. Employees are also eligible for “up to an additional four weeks unpaid under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act.”
To take the time off, Elena said she used up all of her vacation time, her sick time, and was able to receive short-term disability coverage for an additional six weeks off with a note from a doctor.
After being contacted by media, Elena’s employer did offer her some paid time off. Elena said when the Texas Tribune asked about the maternity leave policy, she was offered four more weeks of paid time off.
But all that took time and effort for her to receive, on top of the trauma of her stillbirth, recovery from a 15+ hour traumatic labor, and parenting her 2-year-old child.
"The anger that I have at the policies of the city — I'm never going to forget," Elena said, per Today. "It's so unnecessarily and unbelievably cruel."
