Baby clothier apologizes for firing woman who wanted to remain by her premature baby's side after his hospitalization

A Texas woman working for a baby clothing company was reportedly denied a work-from-home option that would have enabled her to both keep her job and care for her newly adopted, 1-pound premature baby.

Facing significant backlash over Marissa Hughes' alleged firing — off-brand for a company that caters to children and often blogs about ways to relieve parental stress — Ying Liu, the founder and CEO of Kyte Baby, has offered two separate apologies on TikTok and invited Hughes back.

According to a GoFundMe fundraiser for the baby's medical expenses, Marissa and Rawley Hughes of Dallas have faced incredible difficulties having children. In addition to losing three babies, Marissa Hughes has undergone nearly three years of extensive fertility treatments with no success.

The couple was nevertheless undeterred in their commitment to growing their family and raising children.

"We were also blessed to have been foster parents," wrote Marisa Hughes. "Now we feel the Lord truly calling us to step into long-term, earth-side parenthood. The Lord has laid adoption on our hearts."

Months after announcing they were adopting, the couple received a joyous call on Dec. 29 notifying them they had a 22-week-old premature son waiting for them in the neonatal intensive care unit of an El Paso hospital, nine hours away. Their baby boy, Judah Al Haven Hughes, weighed little over one pound.

The New York Post reported that due to Judah having "various health concerns," he required an extended hospital stay. Accordingly, he would not be released from the NICU until the end of March. The boy's adoptive parents wanted to keep their boy company and care for him in the meantime.

Marissa asked Kyte Baby to continue her work from the hospital in the interim, but was allegedly only offered two weeks. Since she has been at the company for less than a year, she does not qualify for the Family and Medical Leave Act, which would have otherwise afforded her 12 weeks of unpaid leave and continued benefits.

According to the Post, Hughes was allegedly told that if she did not turn up to work after the two-week period, she would be out of a job. Given everything she had done already to become a mother and the care Judah still required, the decision was evidently a no-brainer for Marissa Hughes.

Kyte Baby's owner, Lieu, later indicated she had been the one to veto Marissa's request for remote work.

Following Hughes' departure, considerable backlash against the company, and calls for boycotts, Liu released two apology videos on TikTok, reported People.

In the first video, Liu said, "I wanted to hop on here to sincerely apologize to Marissa for how her parental leave was communicated and handled in the midst of her incredible journey of adoption and starting a family."

After stressing her respect for biological and adoptive parents alike, Lieu noted that "such respect and good intentions were not fully communicated to Marissa in the discussion of her parental leave."

Liu assumed ultimate responsibility for the decision, stressing, "It was my oversight that she didn't feel supported as we always have intended."

The baby clothier noted further that Marissa will have a position waiting for her "whenever she decides to return to work" and wished the "best to her and her family."

The initial apology apparently did not go over well as critics slammed Liu for a supposedly canned and calculated response. Liu later conceded the "comments were right" and the video was "scripted," reported the Daily Mail.

In the second video, posted to TikTok on Thursday, Liu struck a less corporate tone and said, "Sincerely, what went wrong is how we treated Marissa and I'm the one who made the decision to veto her request to go remote as she stays in the NICU to take care of her adopted baby. When I think back, that was a terrible decision."

"I was insensitive, selfish and was only focused on the fact that her job had always been done on-site and I didn't see the possibility of doing it remotely," continued the baby clothier. "Having a bit of sensitivity and understanding would have accommodated her, and I did not accommodate her."

"I understand if you don't want to come back to work anymore, but we will continue to pay you as if you were working remotely for us for those hours that you proposed until you're ready to come back," said Lieu. "And your position, your original position, is always open for you when you come back."

Neither the company nor Hughes appear to have responded to the Post's requests for comment.

Hughes indicated in an update on Facebook that Judah was being transferred to a Level 4 NICU, suffering a blockage in his intestines, an infection, and holes in his heart and lungs.

At the time of publication, Judah's medical fund had raised over $69,000. Luna Aziz, the CEO of the lactation-assistance company Legendairy Milk, chipped in $5,000. Lactation counsler Karrie Locher of Karing for Postpartum also donated $5,000. The Texas-based baby clothing company Kate Quinn chipped in $2,000.

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