This startup CEO just introduced miscarriage leave. Will others follow her lead?

Paid leave following a miscarriage is an employee benefit available to few women. And that’s exactly why the founder of The Mom Project is now providing it to her team.

“Our mission is to support all parents and caregivers,” says Allison Robinson, founder and CEO of The Mom Project, a talent marketplace that connects women with flexible career opportunities. “So it’s important that our policies reflect the realities of the modern American family.”

That reality is more common than many realize: nearly 15 percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage, but as the topic is still considered taboo by many, women who are suffering have few outlets to turn to for support. And often, the road to parenthood becomes a long and challenging one.

The Mom Project will provide full-time employees with one week of paid leave for pre-term losses or for miscarriages occurring in the first trimester, three weeks in the second trimester, or six weeks in the third trimester. The expansion of family benefits also includes unlimited in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and adoption assistance of $25,000 and 16 weeks of parental leave, among others.

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“This doesn’t just align with the brand and the mission of the Mom Project,” says Robinson, who launched the company in 2016 after learning that 43% of top female talent exits the workforce within a year of having a child. “We’re signaling to our customers and our partners: this is something you should offer, too. It’s our hope that we can expand the reach of this benefit to our entire ecosystem.”

The Mom Project works with such companies as Apple and Nike, so any ripple effect Robinson can create in the business world may have outsize impact, which is why she focused on creating a benefits package that was comprehensive and inclusive to all employees and paths to parenthood. To do so, Robinson partnered with fertility benefits company Progyny, which serves 2.7 million members and aims to empower employees to choose their own best path forward. The availability of these benefits can actually help to reduce the high-risk maternity and NICU costs that are often associated with IVF-related multiple births.

“Patients no longer need to bring a calculator to their appointments and forgo the best course of treatment due to cost,” says Erin Hennessey, vice president of business development at Progyny. “Now they have the freedom to make the best clinical decisions with their clinical care team and achieve their dream of parenthood.”

Read more: Why small businesses need to offer a managed fertility benefit

The Mom Project’s business has evolved in recent years, from simply helping companies recruit talent to helping them support and retain that talent — and Robinson sees these kinds of benefits as a critical retention strategy.

“This is such an important benefit to help people through a really taxing time, a chance for companies to show that they care about the wellness of their employees, both physical and mental,” she says. “And some of our customers offer these benefits to their employees, and people do reward them for that.”

While the events of the past year were hard on working parents — particularly working mothers and especially working mothers of color — Robinson is encouraged that business leaders may now be paying closer attention to the needs of their teams.

Read more: Reframing discussions around fertility benefits to create greater inclusivity

“COVID really exposed, to a lot of companies, the cracks that already existed,” she says. “There’s now more of a sense of urgency because the competition for great talent is so high, and companies are learning that the demographics of their workforce are changing. Millennials represent the biggest composition of their workforce, so they have to figure out what they can offer to keep them in their organizations, and keep them happy and well.”