Episode 2 Mom’s at Work: Starting a family, navigating fertility support and employer benefits

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Starting a family is one of the most exciting moments in life. But for so many people, the reality comes with unexpected hurdles — whether it’s struggling with fertility, figuring out what benefits your job actually offers, or realizing, too late, that your employer doesn’t provide much support at all.`

Fertility issues are more common than ever, and the cost of treatments like IVF is sky-high. That means fertility benefits, paternity leave, parental support, and family-friendly policies are becoming make-or-break factors for many job seekers.

But the rising costs of fertility are squeezing both employees and employers. Maven, a virtual clinic for women’s and family health, published a report in February 2025 which revealed that 69% of employees either have taken, considered taking or might take a new job at an employer that offered better reproductive and family benefits. 

"We had very limited access to insurance covered benefits for our fertility journey."

Jenna Glover

Chief clinical officer, Headspace

The report also showed that more than half of employees lack clarity on costs before starting treatments, 46% received a surprise healthcare bill or paid more than expected, and 28% went into debt to cover related healthcare costs. 

In this episode of our limited-series podcast WorkLife Presents: Mom’s at Work, we speak with Jenna Glover, chief clinical officer at Headspace, who shares some of the challenges she and her wife had on their own fertility journey, and in navigating company benefits, and what a bad maternity policy looks like.

"As time has progressed, one of the things that we've really tried to lean into is there are all types of families, and families are created in a myriad of different ways."

Kelly Jones

Chief people officer, Cisco

Cisco is among the rare number of employers that have generous fertility and maternity benefits. In the U.S. the company has a family planning program where it will reimburse up to $50,000 for family planning expenses that are not related to a medical diagnosis.

We speak in this episode to Cisco’s chief people officer Kelly Jones on why offering employers tens of thousands of dollars in fertility support is an ROI no-brainer when it comes to talent retention.

"Anyone that's sort of in a specialized position or management position that replace you know, at that point, you're looking at anywhere between 50% and 150% of their annual salary."

Sean Puddle

Managing director, NA, Robert Walters.

And we speak with Sean Puddle, managing director of North America at talent search firm Robert Walters, on the real financial costs businesses face when they have to replace talent, after mothers exit the workforce. 

WorkLife Presents is hosted by Jessica Davies, founding editor of WorkLife, Sara Patterson is producer, and Tim Peterson is the executive editor of audio and video for Digiday Media. 

If you’ve enjoyed listening, please subscribe, rate and review us on Apple Podcast, Spotify or wherever you are listening. For more coverage, visit Digiday.com and WorkLife.news.