“Every day we’re focused on helping our hopeful parents have the family they want. So, how could we not offer paid leave for maternity or paternity time to our own employees?” offered Dr. Molina Dayal, Medical Director when asked about the unique employee benefit of six weeks paid maternity leave offered by STL Fertility, St. Louis’s only all-female, locally owned fertility center.
While the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) established in 1993, requires that employers provide up to 12-weeks of leave during a 12-month period to care for a new child, care for a seriously ill family member, or recover from an illness, those 12-weeks are unpaid, sometimes leaving many to go back to work too soon. Since launching STL Fertility in August 2020, the founders Dr. Molina Dayal and Dr. Maureen Schulte knew they had to support their employees just as well as they care for their patients developed a six-week paid benefit for their employees who have been with the company for at least 12-months.
“Our staff does an amazing job of helping our patients from their first call to discharge back to their OB/GYN for routine pregnancy care. We owe it to them and offer a six-week paid maternity and paternity program. It’s true when we say our family is here to build yours,” added Dr. Schulte who recently had a new addition to her family last spring. “As a working mom, to have the time with my new baby and the whole family is critical but I also have bills to pay like my patients and employees. So, we wanted to do what we could at STL Fertility.”
According to the Pew Research Center, more than 70% of US mothers are in the workforce (full or part-time), yet the US laws like the FLMA provide no paid leave time and the US is just one of a few countries in the world not to offer it.
From an employee perspective, 6-weeks of paid leave is a welcomed benefit, especially for someone helping others to have a family. “We were very blessed to be part of the STL Fertility family. They were always supportive both during and after my pregnancy. We’re overwhelmed with joy and gratitude for the paid leave. We feel so lucky to have an employer that sees the need to support parents like this,” offered Karla, a medical assistant with STL Fertility.
Several US states have expanded the scope of the FLMA over the last few years, unfortunately, Missouri is not one of them and residents only have the unpaid benefit of the FLMA. In the meantime, STL Fertility is just a handful of St. Louis based companies that offer paid maternity or paternity time to their employees.
With deep roots in the St. Louis community, our team of experts at STL Fertility, Dr. Molina Dayal, Dr. Maureen Schulte, and nurse practitioner Melanie Miranda, provide the high touch and hands-on experience that fertility patients expect, supported by unparalleled success rates.
STL Fertility is the only 100% locally owned by female physicians, all-female fertility center based in St. Louis. In August 2020, the providers took full ownership of the practice from their former parent company and relaunched the practice as STL Fertility. While the name has changed from SIRM St. Louis Fertility Center to STL Fertility, the commitment and mission haven’t: it’s about helping one patient at a time find an individualized path to fertility success.