Family-building support and fertility benefits have become some of the most sought-after perks for millennial workers. As those benefits have started influencing retention and driving workers to seek out new jobs, employers have taken notice—so it’s no surprise that benefits providers like Carrot are seeing companies invest more deeply in these offerings.
Even as more companies take steps to support employees through family building and pregnancy, however, marginalized workers continue to face greater obstacles navigating those experiences at work. A new report released today by Carrot captures the racial disparities that persist when it comes to maternal care.
Feeling prepared for pregnancy
In a survey of nearly 1,300 women—which included a fairly equal share of respondents who identified as white, Black, Hispanic, and Asian—only about half reported feeling ready for pregnancy. While white and Asian women reported being prepared at higher rates, that figure dropped noticeably for other racial groups; in fact, over a quarter of Black and Hispanic women surveyed said they were “somewhat” or “very” unprepared for pregnancy. When it came to the postpartum stage, just 38% of the women surveyed said they felt prepared, and that number dipped to 28% among Hispanic women.
“Racial disparities exist in many different parts of healthcare,” says Carrot cofounder and chief medical officer Asima Ahmad, who is a practicing reproductive endocrinologist. “I see this in my own patient population and with Carrot members. With this survey, we can see women of different races had different things they found more challenging.”
The impact of flexibility
One of the biggest issues for many people during pregnancy, or while undergoing fertility treatments, is a lack of flexibility at work, which 65% of respondents said interfered with their ability to take time off for prenatal appointments. The majority of people surveyed cited the cost of care and mental health as serious concerns as well, but those issues were also influenced by racial background: Black and Hispanic women struggled more with the cost of care and family support.
While two-thirds of respondents said they had experienced mental health challenges while pregnant, white and Asian women were far more likely to seek help, along with those who lived in major metropolitan areas; people who didn’t get adequate mental health support said they either didn’t know where to find help or couldn’t foot the cost of care.
The report also indicates that returning to work remains a major hurdle for most birthing parents, regardless of their racial or ethnic background. More than half of the women surveyed did express a strong desire to return to work. But nearly all of them—91%—expressed concerns about doing so and cited at least one significant challenge, from the cost of childcare to career advancement. Less than half of respondents felt that their needs were accommodated when they returned to work, an issue that Black and Hispanic women seemed to experience more acutely.
What benefits help
Flexible work was cited as one of the most valuable benefits for women who returned to the workplace. But many of them also said other benefits would have improved their experience, from counseling to lactation spaces. On the whole, 84% said expanded benefits from the prenatal stage through the return to work period would impact their decision to stay at their company, a finding supported by plenty of other surveys and accounts from working parents.
The report also notes that nine out of 10 Carrot members return to work after their pregnancy, offering more evidence that companies are making a worthwhile investment by doubling down on maternal healthcare benefits. (Carrot has over 1,000 customers that run the gamut in terms of industries, from manufacturing and retail to finance.) Ahmad highlights the services that platforms like Carrot offer, from group prenatal sessions to lactation consultants, which can impact both health outcomes and the postpartum experience for working parents.
“Being a healthcare professional and having gone through it myself, I can say that what I’m seeing in these survey results is truly what I see in the community of people who are going through pregnancy and the postpartum journey,” says Ahmad. “I was happy to see some of that being voiced and reflective of what I see and have personally experienced—that there should be more support. When that’s in place, people are more likely to be able to return to work.”
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