What To Expect From
Your Benefits If You’re Expecting

By Laura Marzi, August 2012

The 12 months between June 2011 and June 2012 have been the warmest ever recorded in the U.S. since record keeping began in 1895, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s website.¹

Personally, I still remember the summer of 2004 as the hottest summer on record. Technically speaking it wasn’t. I was in my third trimester so it simply felt that way to me. Happily, I delivered a healthy boy in early September.

More births occur during the month of August than any other time of year, according to The Hartford’s disability claims data from 2009 to 2011. July and May rank second and third, respectively, for the highest number of births. That means thousands of women spend the summer months counting down to their delivery date, just as I did.

With the summer winding down, we are getting closer to the time when many people enroll for benefits at work. If you are thinking of starting a family, I recommend that you find out what to expect from your employee benefits package. Does your employer offer disability insurance?

You may not know it, but pregnancy qualifies as a disability under many disability insurance policies. Disability insurance typically provides a percentage of lost income if you are unable to work due to an off-the-job illness or injury.

Many employers pay for a certain amount of disability coverage while providing their employees the opportunity to buy additional protection. Some employers, however, offer disability insurance as an option, which is entirely paid by employees through payroll deductions.

Even if you’re not planning on starting or expanding your family, it’s a good idea to get up to speed on your disability coverage. You might need it for the unexpected.

About 37 percent of U.S. births are the result of unplanned pregnancies, according to the National Survey of Family Growth released in July 2012 by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), a branch of the Centers for Disease Control. The number of unintended births has remained steady at about 37 percent since 1982, NCHS researchers say.

I’m grateful that I had disability coverage eight years ago because it allowed me to focus on my new baby boy and my recovery rather than worrying about our family finances. You can visit The Hartford’s MyTomorrow web site to find out more about disability insurance in general.

Congrats to all those new mothers and fathers this month! And I wish good health and happiness to those of you who are counting down to your delivery.

¹Enloe, Jesse. "State of the Climate." State of the Climate. NOAA/National Climatic Data Center, 7 Nov. 2011. Web. 10 Aug. 2012. <http://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/sotc/>.