Written by Vanessa Birch, Itero Group Marketing Manager
According to a 2020 International Foundation of International Benefits report, only 8.7%* of U.S. organizations surveyed offer paid leave related to miscarriages. This number has grown in recent years, but not by very much, and certainly not nearly enough when you consider that according to the Mayo Clinic, roughly 10 to 20% of known pregnancies end in miscarriage*…like my first pregnancy did, in late 2009.
At the time of my miscarriage, I was working for a large law firm. Like many women, my miscarriage wasn’t characterized by a single event – it started on a Thursday and wasn’t physically over until Monday, and the mental and emotional toll lasted for weeks. To take off the days I needed, I had to take sick/personal days. To be clear, the firm I worked for was very understanding, but the hardest part of the experience was knowing whether I would be supported by my employer if I talked openly about my experience. I’m so pleased to see that companies like Itero Group, which today announced that we have expanded our bereavement policy to include any type of pregnancy loss, are demonstrating to employees that all pregnancy loss matters to both employee and employer. What’s more, Itero Group’s expanded benefit supports all employees who may suffer the loss of pregnancy, whether this occurs as a direct pregnancy, surrogate, partner, or any other related circumstance, and the eligibility and time off for such a loss is the same as that for the loss of an immediate family member.
Itero Group, known for being a leader in our field professionally, hopes to be a leader in the field personally, too – we hope that by demonstrating our commitment to the holistic wellness of our employees through benefits like our expanded bereavement policy, it will inspire more companies to consider the fact that a pregnancy loss matters to anyone who experiences the loss, and that employees need to be allowed time to grieve and heal physically, mentally, and emotionally before returning to work.
* https://blog.ifebp.org/miscarriage-and-other-pregnancy-loss-leave/