Dec 10, 2023 | Advocacy, Family, Federal Government, Uncategorized
Congress Recedes on Bereavement Leave in the FY24 National Defense Authorization Act
Over the last few weeks, many of you called your U.S. Senators seeking their support in allowing the U.S. Armed Forces to return home when their parents die. This bereavement leave would be an added provision to last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) language that allows the U.S. Armed Forces to receive 14 days of paid bereavement leave for the death of a spouse or child.
The U.S. House of Representatives sought to expand bereavement leave for the deaths of servicemembers’ parents, but the U.S. Senate bill did not include the same provision.
To reconcile the differences between the House and Senate versions of the bills, Congress determined that U.S. Armed Forces members would qualify for leave under current leave options provided to servicemembers, and they issued the following statement:
The conferees note that the section 622 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022 (Public Law 117- 81) created bereavement leave as a codified benefit for members of the Armed Services to ensure that no member could be denied paid time off following the death of a child or spouse. This benefit was a compromise borne out of a separate legislative proposal, section 622 of H.R. 4350, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2022, as passed by the House of Representatives, that would have guaranteed paid leave time for parents who lose a child if the servicemember’s parental leave had already been approved but not yet fully used. But that proposal would not have provided any guaranteed paid leave for parents who had already used their parental leave, and it would not have provided any guaranteed leave for members following the death of a child after the child’s first year of life, as parental leave was required to be used within a year of the birth or adoption of such child. Section 622 would also not have provided any guaranteed time off for members upon the death of a spouse.
The conferees note that bereavement leave was never intended to create an entirely novel statutory entitlement to cover any loss that a servicemember might face, but rather to ensure that members who face the most difficult loss, the death of a child or spouse, could not be denied leave time to grieve such death. The annual leave policy under section 701 of title 10, United States Code, provides a generous benefit for members to take leave for personal reasons, including personal loss. Such statutory entitlement is bolstered by standing Department of Defense policies that provide for emergency leave, advance leave, compassionate reassignment, and many other policies supportive of servicemembers when in need.
Bereavement leave is one additional backstop to ensure that no member could be denied a period of paid time off from work following the death of a child or spouse. Because of this, bereavement leave was made non-chargeable if affected servicemembers had fewer than 30 days of leave so that none could be denied such leave on the grounds that they had already used their accumulated paid leave. The conferees expect that servicemembers who experience the loss of a close family member are afforded as much time off as possible, including via bereavement leave or emergency leave; alternate duties as required; and other accommodations as situationally appropriate.
Because of you, we had wonderful and supportive calls with both Democratic and Republican legislators, and as a result, Congress issued this thoughtful response.
Thank you for making a difference!
Together, we are making the world a more livable place for bereaved people.
Nov 14, 2019 | Uncategorized, Parent
How CuddleCot is changing the care system for stillbirth families
The scene opens with a woman, curled up on a hospital bed. A doctor enters, rolling in a white bassinet. “This is called a CuddleCot,” he explains. “It’s a special bassinet that keeps stillborn babies cool so they can stay with their parents a little longer… even after they’re gone.”
Inside is the woman’s stillborn baby, Sophie.
“It’s so …” the mother whispers.
“Morbid?” the doctor responds. “These devices can give you something that nothing else can. Time. It’s not the time you wished you had. Nothing can give you that. But it can give you time to grieve.”
The moment unfolds on this week’s episode of NBC’s year-old drama, “New Amsterdam,” but it’s one that’s playing out more often in real life across the country and around the world. And it’s all thanks to the CuddleCot, an actual device that’s used in a growing number of hospitals and hospices that can provide grieving parents more time with their infant.
Developed by Flexmort, which is based in England, CuddleCots have been on the market for about seven years. “The response,” said Steve Huggins, Flexmort’s commercial director and co-inventor of the CuddleCot, “has been overwhelming.”
In the United Kingdom, every facility that delivers babies has at least one CuddleCot; many have three. And, in the past five years, hospitals in other parts of the world, including Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Africa, have brought in CuddleCots.
The devices were introduced in the United States four years ago. Today, about 1,200 are used in hospitals and hospices here, Huggins said. When he first brought the device to the United States, Huggins said he faced plenty of skepticism about the product. Naysayers wondered why anybody would want it. Today, it’s a different story.
“It’s very much, ‘This is wonderful. This is lovely. I have this amazing story to tell you,’” he said.
How the CuddleCot works
Babies weren’t on Huggins and co-inventor Simon Rockwell’s minds when they launched Flexmort in 2010. The two had worked in law enforcement and emergency and disaster planning. As obesity rates rose, they knew agencies were struggling with handling dead bodies that didn’t fit inside morgue refrigeration. They developed a cooling unit that could be used instead.
As the cooling units took off, a grieving mother shared with them her story about how little time she was able to spend with her own baby and asked them if they could develop something for the smallest among us. The two took up the challenge.
“The CuddleCot was born from that,” Huggins said. “We worked extremely hard to make it as small and quiet as possible.”
The CuddleCot works by continually pumping and cooling water underneath a body, Huggins explained. The movement of the water and the cooling process physically drags away the heat of whatever is on the pad. The device fits inside a bassinet, but parents also have used it underneath the top sheet on a bed or in a stroller.
“It cools the baby down extremely quickly, helping to slow down any change,” Huggins said.
The CuddleCot has allowed parents to spend as much as three weeks with their child, though seven to 10 days is more typical.
“It enables parents to be natural with baby,” he said. “They take pictures, they bathe, they dress, everybody holds baby. They take footprints and fingerprints. The system itself, is so simple to use. It’s so small and compact. In the U.K., and it’s starting to happen in the U.S., families can take baby home into their own environment.”
Not all families will want extra time with their dead infant, Huggins acknowledges. But it gives families, who once spent just minutes with their baby, an option.
“It doesn’t suit everybody,” Huggins said. “It’s about everyone having that choice.”
Anger, then purpose
Erin Maroon would have loved to have more time with Ashlie, her daughter who was born stillborn at full term in October 2015. But, as she recuperated in the hospital from her C-section delivery, Maroon spent less than an hour with her. The room temperature of her hospital room only set the natural processes of death into motion. But the freezing temperature inside the hospital’s cold room quickly changed Ashlie’s tiny features too.
“She was angry and purple,” Maroon remembers. “She completely started to change.”
Maroon read about the CuddleCot on her way out of the hospital. Her first reaction was anger that her hospital didn’t have one. Two weeks later, she decided to start a nonprofit to raise money to buy CuddleCots and place them in hospitals around the country.
“It just snowballed from there,” Maroon said.
Today, Ashlie’s Embrace has raised more than $300,000 and placed 52 CuddleCots in 10 states. Another 16 placements are pending in additional states. Often, families who have benefited from a CuddleCot reach out to Maroon to help them raise money to place another one elsewhere.
“We’ve met with people who did have a CuddleCot who realize the value of it and they want to give back,” she said.
Raising awareness
The recent episode of “New Amsterdam” isn’t the first time CuddleCots made it on the small screen. It’s already appeared “EastEnders,” “Emmerdale” and “Coronation Street,” all popular soaps in the United Kingdom. It’s scheduled to air on BBC’s “Holby City,” a British medical drama, next week.
The production company for “New Amsterdam” reached out to Flexmort about including it in the show. Huggins said they helped as they could.
“We are always pleased when the subject of stillborn is tackled in a TV show as it starts people talking about what unfortunately does happen,” he said. “We thought that the show dealt extremely well with the subject and showed how important it is that the mother has the choice to have time with the baby. Something like this really does let people know that this is totally acceptable and the options are readily available.”
The mentions raise awareness about the CuddleCot, but they also help battle a stigma about what’s right for parents of dead infants.
When the hospital told Maroon that she could keep keep Ashlie with her, she wondered, “Do people do that? Is that weird? Do I sleep with her?”
“We didn’t know what to do with her,” she said. “There’s no handbook for that.”
Now, there’s a growing awareness of the options — and a device that makes those options possible.
“When we first started talking to people about it, it was very much along the lines of, ‘No, I don’t think we need it. Why would the family want to spend time with baby?’” Huggins said. “Things, thankfully, have changed. We have changed the way people deal with deceased babies over here.”
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