“Workers’ Voices” is a series on A Better Balance’s blog highlighting the firsthand experiences of workers from across the country. For some workers we are in touch with, they are covered by federal, state, or local workplace protections that make a world of difference in their ability to care for themselves and their loved ones. For others, their experiences highlight the glaring gaps that remain in our laws.
The below is a story from Farra, a NICU mom from Colorado who shared her story to advocate for change with A Better Balance. Read more about her family’s experience in the Associated Press.
At five weeks pregnant, I woke up covered in blood and learned I had a subchorionic hematoma. At 29 weeks pregnant, I developed HELLP syndrome, a life-threatening hypertensive disorder, and was rushed to the ICU. My blood pressure was dangerously high, my lungs filled with fluid, and I had to be stabilized overnight so that my daughter could be delivered the next morning. At 29 weeks and one day, my daughter, Olivia, was born via emergency C-section.
When I was discharged, I had to leave the hospital without my child and begin a grueling daily commute back and forth to Aurora to visit her in the NICU. Two months after the C-section, I needed to have open heart surgery to repair a congenital heart defect. I was recovering from surgery, pumping, commuting for hours each day, and also preparing for another major surgery, all at once.
I was also still logging on to work remotely. I wanted to save my maternity leave for when my daughter came home from the NICU, plus I needed it to also recover from heart surgery. My only option would have been to take unpaid leave. We crunched the numbers and tried to make it work, but we couldn’t afford to do it. I would leave in the morning and bring my laptop with me to log on from my daughter’s bedside during this time. My team was understanding and I was very lucky, but it would have been so much better to just take that time off and not worry about juggling work with everything else going on, and to be able to fully focus on my daughter and upcoming heart surgery.
My husband and I were barely surviving during this time, and under a lot of stress, especially with him unable to take work off. My husband works as a welder, and in blue collar industries there’s a stigma against fathers taking time off work. We couldn’t risk him losing his job. He went back to work the next day. When I had surgery, he was only able to take two days off work. One week after I was discharged from the hospital after my heart surgery, my daughter came home after spending 76 days in the NICU.
“Bonding is completely different in the NICU – when your baby is so small, you can’t just pick them up. I think a lot of people forget that the NICU is for intensive care.”
It took a while to bond, because she was so fragile. Bonding is completely different in the NICU – when your baby is so small, you can’t just pick them up. Nurses have to help carry them to you and place them on your chest with all the tubes and wires. I think a lot of people forget that the NICU is for intensive care. You can’t even bring flowers in or touch your phone without washing your hands.
Colorado expanded its paid leave program to provide additional paid NICU leave in 2026, and if I’d had access to these protections, it would have made a huge difference for my family. All NICU parents deserve support. Our country needs to catch up, and I’m telling my own story so that more people are aware of what NICU parents go through.
