Diggins-Smith played the '18 season for the Dallas Wings while pregnant NBAE/GETTY IMAGES
The expanded maternity benefits included in the WNBA's new CBA have "earned praise for the way they illustrated the league's dedication to investing in women," as players "will now be guaranteed their full salaries while on maternity leave," according to Thuc Nguyen of the L.A. TIMES. There are benefits for mothers "at every stage, from those who are pregnant to those who have returned to the court and others hoping to start a family." Players have a $5,000 annual stipend for childcare, and those with eight or more years are "eligible for up to $20,000 to cover costs related to adoption, surrogacy, freezing their eggs, or fertility and infertility treatment." Securing higher pay and better working conditions, especially while traveling, were "main priorities of the players union's nearly two-year negotiating process, but the additional maternity benefits made negotiators the most proud." Sparks F and WNBPA VP Chiney Ogwumike said of the benefits, "Everybody has called it a groundbreaking CBA, and the more distance I get from the agreement and the nature of what we accomplished, the more I feel like it wasn't groundbreaking. It was ground-establishing." WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that she "wanted a platform to advocate for women in her new job." Nguyen writes she "accomplished that with the WNBA's historic agreement" (L.A. TIMES, 4/13).
