‘Going above and beyond usual benefit norms’: Companies are starting to give employees time off for pregnancy loss

In 2013, Alison Morra was only two months into her career at Inkhouse public relations agency before learning she was pregnant. She was excited and nervous, but the pregnancy never came to be. And because Morra was so new to the company, she said, she didn’t say anything to her boss about the miscarriage or needing time off to process the grief.

“I grew up with the mentality that work was work and your private life was private and those two things shouldn’t mix,” she said in an email. “Knowing what I know now, it seems crazy I wouldn’t have said something or taken time off, but I was trying to prove to the company that hiring me was a good choice.”