Written by Jessica Gutierrez, founder of Calm-hearted, a B.C.-based pregnancy and infant loss platform.
Content warning: This article discusses pregnancy and infant loss, grief, the experience of returning to work after loss.
October is recognized nationally as a month for pregnancy and infant loss awareness. For B.C. employers, it should prompt a practical question: if an employee told you tomorrow that their pregnancy had ended or their baby had died, would your organization actually know what to do?
What does the company do immediately? Who becomes the grieving employee’s main contact? Who handles their work? And when they return, are managers and colleagues prepared?
Earlier this year, my firstborn son died days after he was born prematurely. I quickly learned that when an employee loses a baby, their workplace becomes part of what happens next. The grieving employee should not have to project-manage the organization’s response.
That experience led me to create Calm-hearted, a B.C.-based pregnancy and infant loss platform offering practical support, relatable writing, and workplace guidance. Calm-hearted complements and works with organizations such as The Butterfly Support Network, which provides counselling, peer support and support groups for families navigating pregnancy loss, infant loss, and infertility.
Most workplace responses begin after a loss, but organizations can prepare before having to act in real time. A bereavement-ready workplace has a supportive culture, psychological safety, and systems in place before a tragedy like pregnancy or infant loss occurs. Readiness can include three things:
Consistency: The quality of the response should not depend on which manager or HR representative receives the news. Name one point of contact who can coordinate internally and stay connected with the employee at an agreed cadence, while ensuring that giving space doesn’t become disappearing. Individual circumstances will differ, but the approach to privacy, support, and communicating next steps should not.
Choice: The goal is not to encourage disclosure when loss happens, but to create an environment where employees feel safe choosing what to share, with enough organizational clarity that any disclosure is met with a thoughtful response. Ask before you communicate, because a personal update is not automatically a workplace announcement.
Clarity: This kind of loss can leave people feeling untethered, and workplace uncertainty shouldn’t add to that. Managers should know who takes ownership and where to get guidance when employees share what happened. Recognize first, organize second — acknowledge their loss before moving into logistics about leave, coverage and timelines, and be clear about what the employee can expect.
B.C. employees have job-protected leaves that can apply after pregnancy ends or a child dies. Those protections matter, but policy is only one part of readiness; human responses create the experience.
Jen Murtagh, co-founder of Vancouver-based Maturn, says employers are moving beyond policy into manager preparation, flexible expectations, and ongoing conversations. In Maturn’s survey of more than 1,000 Canadian working mothers, 47% said a clear transition and communication plan would have made the biggest difference to their maternity-leave transition and return.
Pregnancy and infant loss adds another layer. A grieving parent may be managing medical recovery, postpartum changes, appointments, funeral arrangements, and cognitive symptoms of grief, while trying to function professionally. Murtagh cautions against assuming someone is “back to normal” because they are back at their desk and describes that “flexibility without pressure” is what’s needed most.
Preparedness does not require employers to become grief experts, but to recognize that grief will not follow a HR timeline. Some examples of practical support:
- Before a loss or leave: Determine the company’s response and ownership, how privacy and policy is handled, and “the human infrastructure”, as Murtagh calls it, of who checks in, how often, and how well they’re equipped to do it. In 2026 research, 73% of managers said they needed training to support a bereaved employee.
- During leave: Keep contact intentional, separating condolences from work updates or requests to connect about work so the grieving employee is not expected to solve anything or shift back to work.
- On return and beyond: Prepare managers and coworkers, revisit workload and flexibility, create check-ins and understand that the return is not a recovery milestone.
Allison Venditti, founder of Moms at Work and HR professional, says employees should be treated as “complete people and fully formed adults”: workplaces need to have the tools and resources to support employees through loss and complex life decisions without making decisions for them. She connects that experience directly to retention. Employees, she says, remember “how they were treated during hard personal times.”
Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness Month gives workplaces an opportunity to make this experience more visible — but awareness should lead to action.
Readiness can begin proactively: knowing who will respond, communicating clearly, protecting privacy, and making sure an employee is not left wondering what is happening around them while they’re grieving. As Venditti puts it, “Planning is key, making sure the employee knows what is happening is key, transparency is key.”
When the unimaginable happens, a workplace cannot make the loss easier. It can, however, be ready to respond in a way that preserves trust and connection during an employee’s vulnerable time. Preparing before a loss is how good intentions become the kind of support employees remember for the right reasons.
