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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
World
Alexandra Olson

Tiny patients, big fight: NICU parents win leave in 2 states and push for more

Neonatal Leave - (Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)

Moments after his daughter Olivia was born, Marlon White felt his wife's hand slacken as she fainted. The baby, born at 29 weeks weighing about 2 pounds, wasn't making a sound as she was rushed to the neonatal intensive care unit. Terrified, he waited in the hall while the doctors stabilized his newborn and wife.

The next day, White, a welder, was back at work. Two days later, his wife, Farra Lanzer-White, was also back on the job, setting up a work station at the Denver hospital. For two months, first at one hospital then another, she kept up with emails and meetings as alarm bells went off each time Olivia stopped breathing, as she herself prepared for open-heart surgery for a condition discovered during her difficult pregnancy.

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