Expecting paid parental leave: When your baby is premature

Bianca Johnson’s daughter Bria Marie was born four weeks premature.

Bianca Johnson, a 7th-grade special ed teacher at a Bronx middle school, went off payroll to stay home and care for her daughter, who was born four weeks early and spent the first week of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit.

Her daughter, Bria Marie, was hooked up to machines to check her breathing and temperature during those early days and had to be taught how to eat.

When Bianca and her husband, Billy, finally got to bring their daughter home, it still meant dozens of doctor’s visits and weekly visits from a neonatal physical therapist to make sure Bria Marie was making progress.

Bianca had to go off payroll for two months to care for her daughter.

Bianca quickly ran through her saved sick days and then went off payroll for more than two months so she could stay home and care for her tiny daughter.

She and her husband pulled from their savings to cover costs during the time she stayed home, and she still owes the Department of Education for sick days she had to borrow.

“As teachers, we want to cater to our students, but we also want to care for our families,” Bianca said, grateful that Bria Maria in now a vivacious seven-month-old. “We are giving so much of ourselves to the world. We change the world every day. If we are changing the world, please change our world and let us stay home with our babies.”

Mayor de Blasio he needs to make good on his promise to provide paid parental leave for city employees.