The United States is one of seven countries globally that does not have any guaranteed form of paid leave on a federal level. The U.S. Department of Labor found only 27% of private-sector U.S. workers have paid family leave access through their employer. As of today, just 13 states have laws protecting paid family and medical leave.
That news hit home for Hirsha Venkataraman and his wife, who was eight months pregnant when she stopped feeling their baby move. The doctor gave them the news they feared most: their baby girl Talia no longer had a heartbeat.
"I broke down. Everything was just taken away from me in an instant. I couldn't believe it. I remember I was crying for like three days straight picking up the pieces of that loss," he said.
Venkataraman's experience was made tougher because his wife's paid maternity leave was revoked, which is legal in most states across the country when a baby doesn't survive. Venkataraman did not qualify for paid time off either.
"Because we didn't give a live birth and because I wasn't working, we didn't qualify for New York's paid leave," Venkataraman said. "And that's incredibly problematic, especially in what is generally a pretty legislative progressive state. And it just bothered me that families like us can't be taken care of. Like, are we being swept under the rug?"
Tens of thousands of families every year experience this same feeling.
"I don't think legislators quite see how critical this kind of care is," Venkataraman said. "And not to mention, it's not going to put any sort of state or federal entity in a budgetary shortfall. This is not going to be something that we can't afford. This is really just necessary care."
Venkataraman now uses his law career to help families through reproductive trauma. He works with PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy, a nonprofit fighting for paid leave for parents who experience stillbirth, like Cassidy Perrone.
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Perrone, Venkataraman and PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy advocated to pass a state law in New York to qualify mothers who experience stillbirth for paid leave.
But the bill is now on hold, leaving parents hoping and waiting for a vote.
"It is hard for us to relive this every single time that we talk to a senator or a congressman or the governor's office," Perrone said. "We relive that trauma. But that is the only way that change is going to occur."
While he waits for the bill to be voted on, Venkataraman is speaking up for change in his own way through a fundraiser called A Run for Thalia, held annually on October 18, his daughter's birthday.
"I feel like with everything I do, I want to say, 'What can I do to make my daughter proud?' I encourage anybody to just get out there, run a mile, run a block, run as much as you want, but do it for stillbirth," he said.
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The money raised will help PUSH for Empowered Pregnancy to help families through pregnancy loss and fund the legal fight for paid leave nationwide.
"It's bad enough that New York doesn't have a clear-cut policy in order to help people like us, but the fact that there are states across the country that don't have paid leave generally, I think that's the biggest gap of all," he said.
Venkataraman hopes in the final stretch to Election Day, the candidates realize that supporting paid family leave could be a difference maker.
