There are only
nine countries in the world that doesn't provide maternity leave. The US is one of them. The other eight are tiny little spits of islands where women don't tend to work anyway. Most sources will credit two or three, but Papua New Guinea is pretty much always in there.
Having a baby means having PPD, having all your organs setting back into place after being pushed far out from where they should be, being unable to sit for long periods of time, potentially having to recover from c-section with the US rates being worryingly high. In regards to the health of both the mother and baby, the
lack of leave can be terrible for both.
As for your business, providing leave can actually be a benefit.
Most of all, you won't have to work with Susan while she's struggling with PPD, being unable to stand because it's too painful, being unable to sit because it's too painful, having to leave her station every two or three hours for half an hour so she can pump milk should she have decided to breastfeed (in a likely not-so-private area), thus using some of her valuable work time, and struggling with being apart from her tiny newborn as a whole. She'll be exhausted from physically recovering from giving birth and caring for her newborn all night, as she's still trying learning its patterns. Which will affect her work morale. Which will affect everyone else's work morale. Four months is adequate time for her to heal physically and mentally, sparing you the headache of spending nine hours a day for five days with her postpartum sh!t. Which on a literal level is probably very hard for her to do. And thus will also make work difficult for her and everyone else. Granted, even when she returns from leave, she'd still have to duck out for 30 minutes every couple of hours, but at least everything else should be managed.