How employers can support employees experiencing pregnancy loss

According to data from the March of Dimes, it’s possible that more than 30 per cent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. La Fontaine knows all too well the pain of coping with a lost pregnancy. In 2005, she went into premature labour at 20 weeks while she was pregnant with twins. The babies didn’t survive — one was stillborn and the other lived for just six minutes.

Read: New Zealand now offers paid leave for miscarriage, should Canada follow suit?

After her loss, she wasn’t ready to dive back into work and was hoping her employer at the time would take a more personalized approach to supporting her mental-health needs. Unfortunately, her employer didn’t have a plan in place and took a brusque approach that offered little flexibility in time off for grieving. In addition, her team leader was ill-informed of the company’s available mental-health support tools to help her transition back to work while coping with her loss.

“I would have liked for someone to have looked into what . . . kinds of benefits might I have been eligible for. If someone had suggested . . . I was eligible to take maternity leave, then I would have done so. . . .  Someone [could’ve] suggested to me that . . . I could see my doctor and take . . . short-term disability for . . . not just for the emotional healing but also [the] physical healing that had still not happened by the time I went back to work. . . . I wasn’t thinking about any of those things [and] was relying on my employer to be the person to walk me through what I was even able to access. I also . . . would have liked to have had a conversation about how to manage the interactions with my co-workers.”

Pregnancy loss is such a private, inward experience that, in the past, many employees just haven’t shared with their colleagues and employer when they’re going through this experience, says Kim Siddall, national vice-president of client strategy at People Corporation. But this view is changing, as younger workers are more outward and want their employers to see them as whole people, including their personal lives outside of work and various aspects of mental health.

Read: Alberta expanding bereavement leave policy to include parents experiencing miscarriage, stillbirth

It’s important for employers to view support tools for coping with pregnancy loss as an extension of mental-health supports for employees and their families, she adds, noting with the rise of family benefits, such as fertility or surrogacy benefits, more employees may experience pregnancy loss in some way.

“Employers should have a plan with information at the ready for [team leaders] to use, such as a resource guide. Everybody is going to experience this differently and having a plan, with a focus on flexibility, helps employees to attend to their physical, emotional, spiritual and relational wellness on their own timeline.”

Indeed, while employers’ focus on mental health and well-being continues to grow, there’s still a lack of understanding around the unique grief that arises from the loss of a pregnancy or an infant, says La Fontaine. “[Pregnancy loss] is still something that isn’t talked about. You could go into work after having lost a parent, for example, and expect a very different conversation from if you were to go into work and explain that your baby has died at 18, 20 or 25 weeks [gestation]. While there might be some additional recognition of mental health, and . . . more conversations are being had about employee assistance programs or counselling or even reducing the stigma surrounding mental health, there’s really no conversation being had about pregnancy and infant loss and the needs of the family.”

Read: A look at current provincial policies on bereavement leave

Siddall suggests any plan to support workers grieving a lost pregnancy include information for company leaders on how to broach the conversation, including what not to say and how to guide employees to the right resources they might need to tap into for support. “It should also include information on the . . . different leave programs available to them, including . . . STD leaves, salary continuance or protective leaves under either federal or provincial labour codes. If there is flexibility, it should include [details on] how [the employee will] return, including whether they’ll be able to work from home for a time, as well as . . . any mental-health supports available, such as EAPs, any virtual care options and the suite of mental-health practitioners covered under their plan.”

An aspect of company leaders’ roles is supporting their team and that includes helping to remove barriers to employee well-being, notes La Fontaine. “This means really seeing your team member as a whole person who has a life outside of work that deserves to be supported so that they can be their best, both in and out of work. . . . These types of losses are deserving of support and validation that I think will lead to a healthier, more connected workforce.”

Read: Conservatives’ promising EI benefits to parents experiencing miscarriage, loss of a child