A new state law taking effect this month will require many Texas hospitals offering maternity care to be equipped to handle stillbirths and infant loss. That will mean offering bereavement counseling and providing cooling bassinets.
Following the enactment of a strict ban on abortions, research has shown that more Texas families are losing newborns.
A study published in JAMA Pediatrics found the state in 2022 saw a nearly 13% increase in infant deaths, an 8% percent increase in the infant death rate, and a 23% increase in babies dying from birth defects.
House Bill 37, which aims to offer more support to grieving families, was inspired by Everly Talman, who was stillborn to Katie and Tyler Talman from North Dallas.
Katie Talman has always wanted to be a mom, and in 2018, she became one.
"We were so lucky to get pregnant with twins," she said. "I was thrilled. Tyler was... I think he turned white."
"We were all really happy," Katie Talman said. "Everything was great. And then the sonographer stopped speaking, and it felt like the air was sucked out of the room."
The remaining twin was diagnosed with Turner Syndrome, which occurs when a baby is missing, or partially missing X chromosome.
Miscarriage in those cases is nearly certain. While terminating the pregnancy was an option in Texas at the time, the Talmans chose to continue.
"I saw hope in that 1%. I know it was really naïve," said Katie Talman. "This was my first pregnancy. It was a girl, you know. It was just my dream," she said.
Pregnancy, though, immediately became much harder.
"It was really hard to find joy," she said. "There was no shopping for baby outfits. There was no planning in the nursery. It became really hard to be in public, because I was very obviously pregnant, and it was hard to dodge questions from strangers."
She did find the courage to name her baby. Everly.
She also found some relief by using a Doppler device each night to listen to Everly's heartbeat.
"I would just sob 'cause she was still there," she said.
Katie Talman saved the recording made the night Everly died.
"The next morning, when we woke up, for some reason, something felt different to me," she said. Even her husband, Tyler, she says, had a sense that something was off.
"He hesitated to reach for the Doppler, and when he put it on, it was silent," she said.
Katie Talman opted to be induced to lay eyes on the baby she'd been carrying for the past five months.
"It was the most devastating moment of my life, just, I wanted so bad to believe it wasn't true, and when she came out, I remember I just screamed so loud," she said. "But, thankfully, a few moments later, I was able to just feel this sense of overwhelming peace wash over me, so that I could hold her and look at her and study her and rock her and love her."
Having spoken to other mothers who'd lost a child, Katie Talman said she knew to ask for a bassinet like a Cuddle Cot or Caring Cradle.
They come with special cooling technology and a blanket or pad to lower the temperature of a stillborn baby's body, which delays decay and allows families more time together.
On social media, families who experienced a stillbirth have shared what the bassinets did for them.
"We were able to spend three days with Skylar at the hospital. We got to see her whenever we wanted to, spend as much time with her during those days, and that was all because my hospital had a Cuddle Cot," said Bridgett Rogers.
"Our three-year-old daughter was able to come and meet her sister at the hospital. Our families were able to come and see her. Because of the Caring Cradle, we had a moment in time when our family was whole," Emily Johnson said.
Katie Talman felt fortunate to have access to one, but access alone, she said, wasn't enough. At the hospital where she delivered, she said staff, likely lacking the training to deal with grieving parents, left her feeling rushed.
"A nurse came in less than 24 hours after delivery with discharge papers, and I wish I had known then that I could have stayed much longer," she said.
She vividly remembers Everly's bassinet being wheeled away, a goodbye she still struggles to accept.
"It's really hard. It's really hard that I didn't get up and run after her," she said.
A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University published in JAMA Pediatrics found the state's ban on abortion in early pregnancy has driven up the number of families experiencing the loss of a child in their first year of life.
The rate of Texas infants dying in their first year of life had been dropping.
In 2020, it decreased by almost 3% compared to the previous year. In 2021, it was dropped by nearly another percentage point.
Then in 2022, following the ban, it suddenly jumped by more than 8%.
Even more striking was the number of children dying from birth defects, like the one Everly had. Across the United States, there was a nearly 3% drop in cases that year, but in Texas, the number grew by almost 23%.
That same year, Katie Talman said she got a knock at her door.
"I opened my door and there was this woman and she had pamphlets and she listened," she recalls. Her neighbor, Mihaela Plesa, was running for state Representative.
With a personal history of infertility and IVF she's shared publicly, Plesa said Katie Talman's story struck a nerve.
Plesa quickly began work on a bill she filed this year to help the growing number of families experiencing loss.
"A lot of people don't know that Texas has seen an uptick in infant loss and stillbirth," Plesa told CBS News Texas.
Plesa's bill, House Bill 37, requires hospitals with a maternal care designation to have a cooling bassinet available and train staff on how to care for grieving families.
Plesa, who has opposed the state's restrictions on abortion, says improving response to infant loss is one area where she found nearly unanimous support among lawmakers.
"Texas is going to be leading the nation in this golden standard of care," she said.
Dr. Terri Major-Kincaide, the director of Pediatric Palliative Care Medicine at UTHealth Houston, who specializes in newborn hospice care, testified in support of the bill. She said she worked in more than 30 hospitals across Texas, where resources for grieving families vary widely.
Only about half, she said, had cooling bassinets.
At a hospital without one, she said she'll never forget one family's desperation to be able to keep their baby's body as long as possible.
"They, on their own, had brought like Ziploc bags with ice cubes in them to spend time with their baby, and they would put the ice cubes around her," she said. "That was upsetting that they felt like they had to do that."
Eight other speakers addressed the Texas House committee on public health that same day, including Katie Talman.
"Afterwards, I sat down and completely bawled my eyes out," she said. "It's hard to talk about our experience, losing Everly, and also just wanting this so bad for other mothers and fathers who have been through this. You know, it's huge. It's huge."
Lawmakers passed the bill, but not before making one key change - officially changing its name to "Everly's Law."
"To know that her name was going to be on a piece of legislation like this...That moment helped a lot."
Today, Katie Talman is a mom to two boys, Everly's two younger brothers. She keeps her home filled with images of butterflies, symbols of her daughter and the legacy of the bond they shared.