Having a family was always in Jackie Foote’s plan, but now she has a family of five.

But her family is missing one.

“She would have been, or he would have been, my second," she said.

Her family calls the baby "TW," a nickname similar to one they would give all their kids before they knew their sex.

“TW stands for Tiny Wings,” Foote explained.

But towards the end of her first trimester, Foote found out they’d never meet.

“I was actually at work when I started having some pains and stuff and I kind of realized something wasn't right," she recalled. "I actually had my husband pick me up because I didn't want to drive. I didn't know what was going on. And that's when we had the sonogram that said there was no heartbeat.”

It was a physical and emotional blow.

“I was a wreck,” she said.

As a new teacher, she used a sick day to go to the doctor and didn’t have any left.

“They said because I didn't have, like, a death certificate, they couldn't qualify it as being bereavement time," she explained. "So I had to go right back to teaching the very next day.”

It’s a situation many families find themselves in after a miscarriage (pre-20 weeks) or stillbirth (post-20 weeks).

“We all know someone who's gone through this tragedy [of a stillbirth] and we can let them go through it alone,” said State Assemblymember Jenifer Rajkumar.

Rajkumar has two bills awaiting action in New York. One offers disability benefits for pregnancy loss, including miscarriage, and the other gives paid family leave to those who experienced a stillbirth, not including miscarriage.

“[Stillbirth] affects about 1,400 women across New York state every single year,” Rajkumar explained.

Other versions of these bills have been introduced before, with bipartisan support, but stalled.

“The paid family leave bill I've introduced has over 100 co-sponsors on both sides of the aisle,” she said.

Rajkumar is hoping something passes before the end of the 2023-2024 legislative session.

“I do see this getting done," she added. "I have had conversations with the governor and this is an issue that she cares about deeply. She cares about women's issues. So now it's time for us to act.”

As for Foote, she won’t ever forget TW.

“Even to this day, it's been eight years, almost nine years and TW is still part of our family. We celebrate their loss in a yearly celebration with my daughters," she explained. "[It's] just to really think about the fact that even though I didn't have a child in my arms, it still was a big loss.”

She hopes lawmakers won’t forget that either.

“Being able to have that time to grieve and the time to be with our family after that would make a huge difference,” she said.

The New York State Legislature’s session will end on June 6.