Expecting paid parental leave: When your baby has a congenital defect
Meredith Formica, a middle school teacher in Queens, was given devastating news just three days after her second child, Luca, was born. The heart murmur doctors had been monitoring was diagnosed as a congenital heart defect.
Doctors warned her and her husband that the least exertion — even crying — could put her newborn son at risk. The couple was told they had to watch Luca’s every move for fear he would turn blue from lack of oxygen.
“I had to be there for him, watching him. A 2 a.m. feeding meant all the lights were on so I could check his tongue and his lips to make sure they weren’t turning blue,” Meredith said. “It was more than frightening. Even now, it is difficult to talk about.”
Meredith had used up all her sick days with the birth of her first son, Giovanni. So she had to go off payroll if she wanted to be with Luca 24–7, adding financial stress to what was already an incredibly difficult time for her young family.
“How could I leave Luca with anyone? We were told crying, sneezing, was an exertion and could be trouble. He needed me, and I needed to be there for him,” she said.
She remained off payroll for the four long months it took before doctors felt they could do what might have been the first of many heart operations on Luca.
The surgery was successful, and so two weeks after surgery, Meredith went back to work. Her mother came to watch Luca, and her husband transferred to a job closer to home — so he could be there “in a heartbeat” if needed, she said.
Today, Luca is a vibrant 17-month-old boy, whom his family calls “the Tank.”
But Meredith lost $20,000 for being off payroll last year. A sane paid parental leave policy would have lessened the stress — financial and otherwise — on her family. She is now advocating so other families don’t have to go through the same experience that hers did.
It is time, Mayor de Blasio, to provide paid parental leave to United Federation of Teachers members and other city workers.
