Transcription:
Paola Peralta (00:09):
Welcome to Perk Up, a podcast about workplace culture and benefits brought to you from the team at Employee Benefit News. I'm Paola Peralta, your new host for season three. We're doing things a little differently with this new season and we'll be spending the next eight episodes talking about what it's like to become a modern parent in today's work world. We'll be talking about fertility benefits like egg freezing and IVF and diving into the fight around reproductive rights. We'll chat with LGBTQ employees about their inclusive family benefits and learn about new approaches to birthing support like doula care. We're also revealing just how much time off new parents are taking before heading back into the office and why all of these benefits and support make a difference for working parents and a business's bottom line. Today I'm talking to Editor-in-Chief Alyssa Place who spoke with an employee at at and t about the fertility care that made her journey to parenthood possible. Hey, Alyssa, welcome to the podcast.
Alyssa Place (00:59):
Hey, Paola, thanks for having me.
Paola Peralta (01:01):
Today we're talking about fertility and full disclosure, I don't have any kids, so I don't necessarily know much about becoming a parent, but I do know that it's not always a straightforward process.
Alyssa Place (01:11):
Yeah, definitely not. And actually about 42% of adults are going to use some sort of fertility treatment as they're trying to conceive, and that can take a huge emotional toll and it's also incredibly expensive. A round of IVF, for example, costs around $12,000.
Paola Peralta (01:29):
Wow. And the employee you spoke to from at and t, she had to do three rounds of IVF, right?
Alyssa Place (01:34):
Yes. So I chatted with Jessica Swain. She works at at and t as the director of PR and communications. Not only did she go through three rounds of IVF, she had previously frozen her eggs, a process that she started around five years ago. So this is something that she's been working on for many years. Unfortunately for her, it's been covered by her company. At t, she was able to tap into benefits from progyny and throughout her pregnancy. She's also been using Maven. On top of all of this, she's pursuing parenthood as a single mom and she's been able to lean on her managers and other working parents at the company. They also work a hybrid schedule, so she was able to fit in all of her different doctor's appointments and it's really worked out for her. She actually just became a new mom to a baby girl a couple weeks ago.
Paola Peralta (02:20):
I mean, it's just so cool to see more companies set in good examples for what it means to actually support their employees. So I'm really excited to hear about Mean Jessica and her journey.
Alyssa Place (02:30):
So today we're going to be talking about employee benefits and how that's impacted your ability to start your family. You've gone through quite the journey using a variety of benefits throughout fertility and now with your pregnancy. So why don't you tell me a bit about what led to the decision to tap into your employee benefits in order to pursue your path to motherhood?
Jessica Swain (02:54):
I definitely started down this journey many, many years ago when at t first started offering the egg freezing benefit. It was something I was just definitely interested on and had probably put off longer than I should have. And then the second we started offering it, I was like, okay, I need to do this now. I was single at the time and very much knew that I wanted to have the option to have a family in the future, and so it was a no brainer. It was just kind of like, I'll have this in my back pocket if I need it, if I don't. Great. Probably two years ago I started thinking really seriously about wanting to have a child of my own. I'm 43 now, not getting any younger, but I also just knew that if this was going to happen, it was something I needed to probably get serious about sooner rather than later.
(03:42):
And so reached out to Progyny, who is fantastic to work with. Started exploring those conversations. Had met with the doctor I had met with when I had used for egg freezing, and just started that dialogue and process. It took a lot longer to get pregnant than I think I thought I was, was a little naive thinking, oh, this will be great. I froze my eggs. We'll make some embryos, first one will take, and that definitely was not the case. It's been a journey. It took a couple of years, but I'm super thankful. That is one I pursued. Very excited to be welcoming a little girl here in the next couple of weeks.
Alyssa Place (04:17):
That's so exciting. You're right on the cusp of having this baby after many years of trying. I'd love to hear how the progyny community also helped you. How did it sort of educate you and get you prepared for the medical and emotional process of building your family in this way?
Jessica Swain (04:36):
At the time where I was living, a lot of my friends were sort of in similar positions as me, single mid to late thirties. Definitely knew they wanted a family, but very career focused. So egg freezing was a big conversation topic amongst my friends groups in our thirties. A lot of folks I know have had to turn to IVF, which has been great to have that community to tap into. But progyny has also been fantastic and it's amazing how much stress they take out of the process in terms of just the resources available, it's everything. It's like you're assigned a patient care advocate who really kind of walks you through the entire process. They're very educational upfront, explain to you what the process is, how the benefits work, and they take care of everything, which is so nice because you've got this advocate who you can ask questions to. They've got a wealth of resources on their website that you can just really dig into and kind of learn. They show you how to do shots and everything. So it took a lot off my plate, which was fantastic, just because it's a lot to deal with.
Alyssa Place (05:37):
Yeah, that's great. I mean, I'm sure the questions are just kind of never ending, and so it's nice to have that kind of like 24 hour concierge almost. How did you feel supported at t even if you weren't necessarily sharing the news with them yet?
Jessica Swain (05:52):
I kept it quiet from work, just it was a personal thing that I didn't want to share, but my whole time I've had very understanding and supportive managers that I think had been open about it, they would've been like, yeah, no problem. Do what you need to do. But I was also fortunate that I could schedule a lot of appointments early in the morning on my way into work. And then when I started this process, again, we were still working remotely most of the time are hybrid, and so it was easier to schedule appointments, had continued to be blown away just by the benefits of at t offers, and I was kind of surprised, honestly, just how much at t and the benefit provided in terms of coverage. I was not expecting it to be nearly as in depth and comprehensive as it was, and then they covered just about everything. It works with my insurance, and so I had to pay my deductible and my back's out of pocket, but that is a fraction of the cost compared to everything that goes into IVF, like single rounds between egg freezing and retrieval, and the medication can easily cost while under the tens of thousands of dollars per cycle. Nothing about this process is cheap.
Paola Peralta (07:03):
We'll be back after this brief message, Somi get this straight at and t paid for all of her egg freezing and all of her IVF treatments,
Alyssa Place (07:14):
Everything. And on top of that financial incentive, she also had a personalized care coordinator that she was able to reach out to throughout the entire process. She could ask them any questions that maybe she was too embarrassed to ask her doctor. She was able to get video resources on how to give herself injections. She knew how and when to take all of her medications, and even since Jessica has been pregnant and now as she goes through postpartum, she gets 20 weeks of maternity time through at and t.
Paola Peralta (07:43):
I'm no expert, but I feel like all of that definitely makes a huge difference for new parents and for their companies too.
Alyssa Place (07:49):
Yeah, for sure. A survey by Maven found that 77% of employees plan to stay at their company longer if their employer offered fertility care. And for those who don't have that care, 88% of employees would consider finding a totally brand new job to get that.
Paola Peralta (08:06):
So it kind of sounds like employers can't really afford to not offer this kind of care, especially when you think about all of the different ways people are starting families today.
Alyssa Place (08:13):
Exactly. I mean, as I said in the beginning, Jessica was pursuing this path as a single mom, and we talked about how much these benefits meant to her and the kind of support and community that she's been able to find since you mentioned that you're going to be a single mom and you're pursuing this with your community, but essentially on your own, I wanted to ask you why it's so important for employers to keep in mind your demographic too. Why should employers really expand their thinking about what makes a family today?
Jessica Swain (08:43):
I mean, there's so many different definitions of a family today. It's not, I think what people used to think of through this process. I've gotten connected to so many other single mothers within the company who have given me so much advice and tips on just how they make it work, and that's been fantastic. I'm very, very grateful. We are a very open-minded company when it comes to families of all shapes and sizes. That's hugely important to me, and I feel confident that this is going to be something that I can manage while still maintaining a career that I'm excited about and proud of. But it's definitely played a big factor into just my job satisfaction and how I feel about the company.
Alyssa Place (09:25):
Do you think that having access to the egg freezing and the IVF sort of redefined how you saw yourself as becoming a mom?
Jessica Swain (09:34):
Oh, for sure. If I didn't have access to this, I'm sure I probably still would've pursued it. It would've probably been a longer journey and taken a little bit longer just because the financial costs are huge, and I think I would probably be significantly more stressed about it, especially considering, I mean, it took multiple transfers for me to get fragments, so that's a huge cost. So it is nice though I didn't have to drain my life savings to achieve this dream of mine.
Alyssa Place (10:04):
Yeah, for sure. That is nice to not drain your life savings, to achieve your dreams. And just to sort of finish up, what are some of the things that you're most looking forward to as you think about becoming a new mom? You're sort of out of the weeds of all these medical things and you can just kind of focus on the fantasy. So what makes you really excited about this time period in your life?
Jessica Swain (10:27):
I haven't gone to the fantasy party yet. I think I was so in shock that this was actually going to happen. Then in the last week or two, I'm like, oh God, this actually is going to happen and it could happen tomorrow. So I'm now kind of in the, oh, this is real. This has been something I've wanted for years and for a long time, and I recognize my world's about to completely change, and I probably have no grasp on the reality of what this is going to look like or change, but I'm just excited to be a mom each my daughter, all sorts of fun things, like take her on trips and just have the little mini me. I don't really have these grand fantasies of what I envision this to look like. I think part of it's because it took so long to get here. I've sort of blocked that part out, and it's just now in the last week or two starting to feel like, oh, this is really going to happen.
Paola Peralta (11:24):
Well, thanks again, Alyssa. It was so nice to hear about Jessica's story and she has since had her baby. So congratulations to you, Jessica.
Alyssa Place (11:31):
Thanks Paola. And yeah, congrats Jessica. We're sending you all of our best wishes and a virtual cup of coffee to get through all of those sleepless nights
Paola Peralta (11:38):
And a cup of wine. Now that you can have one. This wraps up our first episode of this season. I'm Paola Peralta, and thanks again, Alyssa Place for coming and joining me as well as Jessica Swain from AT&T. We'll be back in two weeks with a brand new episode. This episode was produced by Employee Benefit News. Rate us and review us wherever you get your podcasts, and check out more content from the EBN team at www.benefitnews.com. Thanks for listening.