Time off work after a stillbirthTime to heal, with your job protected

Your body is recovering from giving birth, and the law covers that recovery. Here is what you can count on if your employer has 5 or more employees.

Up to 4 months to recover

Pregnancy disability leave (PDL) covers childbirth and the loss or end of a pregnancy. It lasts as long as your provider says you are disabled, up to 4 months, and there is no minimum time on the job.

Emotional recovery counts. Depression, anxiety or post-traumatic stress caused or worsened by the loss can be part of your disability, and you can take the time all at once or in pieces.

5 more days for the loss itself

California’s reproductive loss leave law names stillbirth as a covered loss. You get up to 5 days, which do not have to be in a row, once you have worked for your employer at least 30 days.

These days are separate from your recovery leave. If you are on recovery leave, you have until 3 months after it ends to use them.

Partial pay from State Disability Insurance

SDI covers pregnancy, childbirth and related conditions. If you cannot work for at least 8 days, you may receive about 70% to 90% of your wages, up to $1,765 a week in 2026. How long it pays depends on what your provider certifies.

California’s bereavement leave law gives up to 5 days after the death of a family member, including a child of any age. But it does not say whether a baby who was stillborn counts as a “child,” and we found no Civil Rights Department guidance on it. For now, it is an open question.

If your baby was born alive and then died, that is the death of a child, and bereavement leave applies on the law’s plain terms. No source we found says whether one loss can bring both the bereavement days and the 5 days for the loss.

You can still ask. Your employer’s own policy may give more than the law requires.

During recovery leave, your employer must keep paying for your group health coverage at the usual level, for up to 4 months in a 12-month period. It can try to recover those premiums only if you do not come back for reasons other than a continuing health condition, CFRA leave, or something beyond your control.

When your leave ends, you have the right to your same job. Only in limited cases unrelated to your leave, such as a real layoff, can your employer offer a comparable one instead. You can ask for this promise in writing.

Coming back and being treated fairly

If you need changes when you return, such as a shorter schedule or time off for appointments, your provider can advise them and your employer must make reasonable ones. California law treats pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions as part of “sex,” so treating you worse because of your pregnancy or your loss is discrimination.

Starting January 1, 2027, AB 2563 spells this out further, and the Legislature calls it a clarification of existing law. Firing, demoting or punishing you for taking any of this leave is unlawful retaliation. You generally have 3 years to file with the Civil Rights Department, then 1 year after its right-to-sue notice to file a lawsuit.