Resource Aid Center

7 min read · Last updated August 28, 2026

In this article

• What the next few days do not require
• Bereavement leave is a separate right from parental leave
• The FMLA leave you already opened does not close itself
• The benefits nobody remembers to touch
• What to do at 30, 60, and 90 days
• Frequently asked questions

Your baby did not come home from the hospital. Two weeks after the funeral, a Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave you started before the birth is still open on your employer’s books. The baby is still listed as a pending addition to your health plan. A state bereavement-leave clock, if your state has one, has already been running since the day you learned.

What the next few days do not require

Nothing administrative needs to happen in the first 72 hours. The only task that matters this early is gathering paperwork you will need later: the fetal death certificate or infant death certificate, and any hospital discharge paperwork. Every deadline below is measured in weeks and months, not hours. Nothing here requires a decision today. This is a different clock than the one covered in the first 30 days with a newborn, which assumes the baby is coming home.

Bereavement leave is a separate right from parental leave

A small number of states have written a bereavement-leave right for pregnancy loss into law, and two of them reach further, to the death of a baby who was born alive. It exists apart from the parental leave you already applied for, though in at least one state it draws from the same bank of hours. Where it exists, it is unpaid unless your employer’s own policy says otherwise, and it comes with its own deadline to use it. Illinois’ Family Bereavement Leave Act, California’s Senate Bill 848 (SB 848), Massachusetts’ earned sick time law, and Maryland’s House Bill 52 (HB 52) are the four confirmed as of this writing, but they do not all cover the same scenario. Check the table below for which one applies to your situation.

State	Law	Covers stillbirth	Also covers a baby’s death after live birth	Leave amount	Employer size covered	Deadline to use it
Illinois	Family Bereavement Leave Act	Yes	Yes, under the law’s general child-bereavement provision	Up to 2 weeks (10 workdays); up to 6 weeks for more than one qualifying event in 12 months	50 or more employees	Within 60 days of learning of the loss
California	SB 848 (Government Code 12945.6)	Yes	No, the statute’s own definition is limited to pregnancy-related loss	Up to 5 days per loss, capped at 20 days a year	5 or more employees	Within 3 months of the loss
Massachusetts	Earned sick time law (Massachusetts General Laws, M.G.L. c. 149, Section 148C)	Yes, under its “pregnancy loss” language	Not specified in the statute	Up to 40 hours a year of sick time, shared with other qualifying uses	All employers; paid at 11 or more employees	Governed by the same accrual and use rules as other earned sick time
Maryland	HB 52 (2024)	Yes	Yes, the statute names it directly	Up to 60 days, paid	State government employees only, not private-sector workers	Within 60 days of the loss

Illinois’ version needs the closest reading if you are also on FMLA leave for the same event. It runs concurrently with FMLA, not on top of it, so it draws down the same 12-week bank rather than adding to it. Confirm which applies with your own employer before assuming you have more leave left than you do.

The FMLA leave you already opened does not close itself

The FMLA leave your employer approved before the birth does not end automatically just because the reason for it changed. Federal rules require your employer to issue a written designation notice when the leave was first approved, and that same body of rules governs your right to return to your job or an equivalent one. Ask your leave administrator, in writing, to formally update that designation notice once you know your own return date. Nothing in the federal rule does this step for you.

The benefits nobody remembers to touch

Two other pieces of paperwork from the pregnancy are still active and need the same kind of correction. If your baby was added, or was about to be added, to your employer health plan, that enrollment needs to be corrected rather than left to run. Employer plans use this same correction mechanism for any other qualifying event. If you elected a dependent-care flexible spending account (FSA) during the pregnancy, expecting to need child care, federal tax rules allow you to change that election mid-year. A death counts as the qualifying event, so you do not have to wait for the next open enrollment. Ask your benefits department to process both changes now rather than assume payroll will catch it. If your own coverage came through the 12-month postpartum Medicaid extension rather than an employer plan, that extension runs on its own separate clock and is not affected by this event.

If you were also on unpaid leave under the rules covered in the first 30 days of unpaid parental leave, the same designation-notice correction applies there too.

The single most common misstep is assuming grief pauses these clocks. It does not. If your state’s bereavement-leave deadline passes before you request it, that specific leave is gone, though your job protection and other benefits are unaffected. If you never ask your employer to update the FMLA designation notice, you can return to work still technically listed as on leave. That can affect paid time off (PTO) accrual or how benefits continuation is calculated on your file.

What to do at 30, 60, and 90 days

By 30 days: request the FMLA designation-notice update and confirm your return-to-work date in writing. By 60 days: if you are in Illinois, this is the outside deadline to use Family Bereavement Leave Act leave; confirm your dependent-care FSA and health-plan corrections have actually processed, not just been requested. By 90 days: if you are in California, this is the outside deadline to use SB 848 leave. If a short-term disability claim was open for the birth, contact that carrier directly. Its claim-closure process is separate from both FMLA and any state bereavement leave, and it will not close on its own either.

Frequently asked questions

Does bereavement leave for a stillbirth replace the parental leave I already applied for? No. Bereavement leave is a separate right in the states that have it. In Illinois it draws from the same Family and Medical Leave Act bank of hours, so it does not add extra time. In California and Massachusetts, it runs apart from federal leave entirely. Check which applies before assuming you have more time left.

What if my state has no pregnancy-loss bereavement law? Most states have no dedicated statute yet. Ask your employer whether its own policy covers pregnancy or infant loss, since many private policies go further than the law requires. You still keep every other right discussed here: closing out FMLA correctly and correcting the benefit elections tied to the birth.

Can I still change my dependent-care FSA election after the loss? Yes. Federal tax rules allow a mid-year change to a dependent-care flexible spending account when a death is the qualifying event, instead of waiting for open enrollment. Contact your benefits department and ask them to process the change under that specific rule.

What happens if I miss my state’s bereavement-leave deadline? You lose access to that specific leave. Illinois’ window closes at 60 days, California’s at 3 months. It does not affect your job protection under the Family and Medical Leave Act or your health coverage, which run on separate rules and separate deadlines.