“My wife and I just recently brought our baby boy, Duke, into this world. About four weeks ago my wife developed gestational hypertension which meant her blood pressure was very high due to her higher blood volume from the pregnancy. Well, six weeks before our due date we ended up having to go to the hospital after some very high blood pressure reads, they decided to keep us and changed her diagnosis to preeclampsia.

Immediately I was very stressed out because I didn’t have any paid time off, we were down to one car and of course my wife was in the hospital with a life-threatening condition for both her and the baby. The doctors decided it was best for both my wife and our baby to induce her six weeks early. Sure enough on July 20th at 9:48 p.m. our baby boy was born and ended up in the NICU, where he stayed for a week, and my wife ended up with a spinal headache due to her epidural.

I called my boss to let him know I wouldn’t be at work for a while because of complications with my wife’s health and our premature baby, that’s when he, my HR rep, and my coworkers sprang into action!