I Lost My Baby. My Company Almost Lost Me. How one company retained a valuable employee by giving her the space to grieve.

• Author: Garn, Elisa

MY HUSBAND AND I WERE EAGER TO welcome our twin boys into the world. We had carefully picked their names, painted the nursery, and made arrangements for my transition from employee to homemaker. During my entire childhood and adult life, I wanted to stay home raising children and managing my household. Now, it was finally becoming a reality.

On the day of the delivery, everything was going to plan. We took silly pictures, joked about our "buy one, get one free" delivery and checked into the hospital with so much joy and anticipation. We didn't realize that early that morning, one of our babies experienced distress and had been without oxygen for several hours.

My doctor approached us with his mask still covering his nose and mouth. I'll never forget the look of terror in his eyes as he struggled to find the words to tell us our baby was gone. All he could say was, "I'm so sorry."

The next two days were a flurry of tear-filled phone calls, visits from amazing volunteers who had experienced their own loss, newborn feedings, and conversations about what had happened. We were simultaneously celebrating the joy of our new baby and grieving the loss of our other child. No one knew what to say to us. No one knew what to do for us.

You don't have to keep your personal life at home

In times of tragedy and loss, I believe we see some of the best examples of humanity in others. I was overwhelmed with the amount of love, kindness, and support we received from people. Not just from friends and family, but also from coworkers, neighbors, and strangers. It made me feel like it was okay to feel whatever I was feeling, and gave me confidence knowing I didn't have to hide it.

During this time, I received a call from my company's CFO letting me know the CEO and vice president of HR were leaving the company, and he asked if I would consider working from home part-time to help keep things going until they could figure out a long-term plan. He was considerably interested in my well-being and asked about our family, offering condolences as well as congratulations.

What he didn't know at the time was how welcome that phone call was. I was struggling. My expectations of what I thought I wanted were not meshing with the reality of how it felt. I eagerly agreed to the arrangement. It was a mutually beneficial situation that met the needs of the company along with my need to take a break from my grief while I was healing.

Over the next several months, I started going...