A prenup was once simply a way for a couple to protect individual assets if their marriage went south – but the legal agreements are increasingly being adapted to correct what’s often a financial imbalance in the instance that one party is a stay-at-home parent.

Women – and yes, it’s women 80 percent of the time – who leave the workforce to raise their children can lose as much as $295,000 in salary and retirement savings, according to the research group Urban Institute. This risks a precarious financial situation in the event of a divorce.

“I had a lot of shame,” one mom-of-two wrote in The Cut earlier this year, following a divorce which left her with next to nothing after she stayed home with her kids while her husband worked. “I didn’t believe I deserved anything because I hadn’t worked for all those years, even though I’d been taking care of our children full-time. I didn’t advocate for myself at all. I felt incredibly embarrassed that I’d been so dependent on my ex. It made me feel like my life was fake. I was a 38-year-old woman and I didn’t even have savings.”

Family lawyers, who specialize in divorce, told The Independent that around one in four prenuptial agreements now include a “leaving-the-workforce” trigger clause that provides additional financial support to spouses who decide to leave their careers to raise children at home.

“Couples are thinking ahead about children, childcare, relocation, household responsibilities and the possibility that one spouse’s career may take priority over the other,” Todd Spodek, managing partner at New York City-based Spodek Law Group, told The Independent in an email. “They are also more willing to recognize that unpaid work within the family has real financial value.”

Divorce laws vary state by state but, in general, alimony and child support aren’t automatic anywhere in the U.S. Courts base payments on multiple factors including number of children and each spouse’s income.

A prenup that includes a “leaving-the-workforce” trigger could make the process of figuring out spousal support a lot easier. But it requires couples to work out what “leaving the workforce” includes, Spodek said.

“Does the provision apply only if both spouses agree that one person should leave the workforce,” Spodek said. “Does it apply when someone reduces their hours? How long must the spouse remain out of work? Does it cover childcare, relocation, elder care, illness or work performed for the other spouse’s business?”

Once a couple agrees on the scenarios, they must decide what type of financial support is activated when a spouse leaves the workforce, said Randall M. Kessler, founding partner of Atlanta-based family law practice Kessler & Solomiany, and can be structured in multiple ways.

It can be paid out during the marriage or in a divorce, Spodek also said.

“We can do formulas like “for each year of the marriage, payor will pay 6 months of alimony at 20% of his gross income as determined by his/her tax return for the prior year,’” he told The Independent in an email. “Or it can be a flat number, like $50,000.00 for each year of marriage.”

The trigger clause can include recurring payments based on childcare costs and years spent out of the workforce, annual retirement contributions or more property rights, Spodek said.

Hannah Hembree Bell, a family law and divorce attorney who founded Austin-based Hembree Bell Law Firm, said that negotiating a prenup is always difficult for couples who decide they want one. And bringing up a leaving-the-workforce trigger clause can still be nerve-wracking for couples, even though she believes more people are talking openly about their finances that a decade ago.

“Initially, it can feel uncomfortable because no one likes to imagine a marriage ending before it’s even begun,” Hembree wrote in an email to The Independent. “But once couples understand the purpose, the conversation usually shifts.”

That purpose, she said, isn’t to anticipate what will happen at divorce. It’s making sure spouses are treating each other fairly if one of them decides to sacrifice their career to raise a family.

“Marriage has become more of a partnership conversation than a one-size-fits-all model,” she said. “Couples are asking practical questions like, ‘What happens if one of us stays home?’ or ‘How do we make sure that decision doesn’t unfairly disadvantage one person financially?’”