Butterfly Code: Will Parents Receive Bereavement Leave After Losing a Child Before Birth?

The purple butterfly displayed in hospitals represents the loss of a child. The grief is devastating regardless of when it occurs, but Paraguayan law currently does not provide bereavement leave for a loss during pregnancy or shortly after birth.

The Chamber of Deputies is scheduled to consider a bill titled “that approves parental bereavement leave and other parental leave.” Its title itself could change. Recent committee reports propose removing the workplace leave and focusing instead on a protocol for medical staff treating parents who have suffered a loss.

The Butterfly Code already operates in Paraguay’s health system, although not as a law. It provides accompaniment and specialized care to mothers who experience a gestational loss. What remains largely absent from current legislation is time away from work to cope with the bereavement.

The original bill proposed two weeks of leave for an early fetal death, up to the 22nd week of pregnancy; four weeks for a loss between the 23rd and 28th weeks; and eight weeks for a late fetal death, from the 29th week until delivery. It also proposed eight weeks after a neonatal death occurring from birth through the first four months.

After an earlier attempt to consider the bill, it returned to committee. Some reports now substantially alter its original purpose. The amended title would establish the Butterfly Code as a national protocol for humane, comprehensive care in cases of gestational, perinatal and neonatal death, removing the workplace-leave provisions and concentrating on hospital treatment, particularly for mothers.