The cost isn't just about things money can compensate. A new mother on maternity leave (or father on paternity leave for that matter) is:

* Not undergoing training (if applicable, eg: a new hire).

* Not gaining and maintaining experience and knowledge in the field.

* Not making business connections with others in the industry and elsewhere.

* Not keeping up (in regards to new standards and ways of doing) with her workplace and the industry at large; IT industries especially so.

* Not providing her manpower, which must be compensated by another employee(s) who can't just be fired or transferred away when (or if) she returns.

Basically, the overhead of accomodating and compensating for employees that maek babby is simply unacceptable for many businesses, especially the smaller ones and particularly if the babby is had very early in their employment or career.

You might say this is sexism and discrimination (even though it's not; childbirth is a choice to be made), but this is the cold harsh reality. People who agree to be employed are expected to work, not maek babby.

This is also a reason for falling birthrates: More people just want to live and work without the sacrifices demanded by childbirth and rearing. They know their life or career they have or dream of could end right there if they choose to have children.

You can't insure against losing someone important in the early days of a startup. You lose the context and knowledge invested into the person, and replacing them will take time, which is even more valuable for a startup. Sure, things don't matter at a megacorp that has enough of a buffer to weather these leaves, but I'm sympathetic to startups that don't want to hire women. I don't know what the solution is, but it can't involve maternity leave. Maybe the state should provide free daycare so that the women can get right back to work.

Is that a real thing or are you just guessing?

I'm trying to imagine an insurance policy that a) protects against financial losses related to losing a pivotal member and b) pays out because they got pregnant, and it sounds insane.