How Much Did Your Prenatal and Birth Cost?

Kathy H. and Kaye S. - You have hit a nerve of mine. I was a single mom at 19, put MYSELF through college, bought a house ON MY OWN, got married in 2006, I work full time at one job, part time at another and my husband works part time and goes to school full time WHICH HE PAYS FOR BECAUSE HE'S SAVED HIS WHOLE LIFE. We STILL don't make enough money to do it on our own. We qualify for Medical Assistance and hell yes we're going to take advantage of it. We work our butts off trying to make ends meet and our two kids are always wearing hand-me-downs. The program is there for a reason, and if WE didn't use it, someone else less deserving would use it. We do pay taxes too! If people waited til they could afford to have a child, probably 60% of people wouldn't have kids that want them. So I wouldn't be so quick to jump to conclusions if you don't know someone's full situation. Shame on you both.

2 moms found this helpful

H.,

I think you should first find out if you can get some additional maternity coverage. Even if you had to pay quite a lot for it - it is very likely you would still be saving money in the long run. When you say your insurance would cover an emergency c-section do you mean your plan will be to have a vaginal birth after c-section? How high is your deductible? Meaning could you be stuck with $15,000 in birth costs and then have to have a c-section last minute and have to pay even more to meet your deductible?

How well does your current insurance cover your daughter? In their first year alone between well baby visits, ear infections and vaccinations you could be looking at a clinic visit every month.

I agree that if everyone waited to have children until they could afford it, many never could or would. I also have no problem with state health insurance because I want pregnant women to have the resources to get prenatal care and have healthy babies. I also know how expensive insurance can be and that for many people paying for it on their own isn't an option. However, I think if you're being responsible and planning another child you do need to realistically think it through. State medical insurance is designed for low income people with no other options. If you have other options and can afford to even consider paying out of pocket for a birth - in my opinion you don't have any right to tax resources already pushed to the limit.

Good luck.

1 mom found this helpful

your not gonna like my opinion-but why have another child if you cant afford the health care-or trying to go to the state??

im sorry but im pretty confused on why ppl want to continue having children when they simply cant afford it..i see it everyday here where i live an its really frustrating.kids are going hungry,shoeless,rags for clothes,homeless etc.so then the state picks up the bill,which in turn comes out of our taxes.i work really hard everyday-i raised my kids alone-ex hubby a jerk-i worked 2 jobs until they were 16 yrs old.

i just cant understand why you would want to go this route-if you cant afford it.

1 mom found this helpful

I just gave birth in June at the Shakopee Hospital. I had an uncomplicated pregnancy and vaginal birth. The total for me and my daughter to stay in the hospital 3 days was around $8,000 before insurance.

I was going to suggest the midwife homebirth option, as many others have. A new study just came out that proved that homebirths are just as safe, if not safer that giving birth in the hospital. It is also a much cheaper option.

Talk to you healthcare provider! They bill what they call "globally" which is a lump sum for the whole procedure. You will have a hospital bill that is seperate and then other expences. Ansetisia if you get an epidural too! If you have a boy and decide to circumsize that bill will be the procedure cost as well as the cost for the dr who does the procedure.
My advice would be that if you are worried about the $ it will cost to have the baby maybe you should wait! Raising them cost a whole lot more!

Depending on how much your husband makes you may be ble to get state insurance for pregnancy if you live in wi. You can make a higher amount for income when you are pregnant and still receive insurance. Don't forget to count the baby as a person when you try for insurance once you are prego or are looking into being pregnant- income wise you would count 4 not 3 I believe.

Hi H.,

I am just wondering if there is any way to get a maternity rider added to your current health coverage? If not, I would check around to see if you can find a company that will cover prenatal and birth expenses and just have the dual coverage. You might want to check with you current plan also to see if they would cover complications with pregnancy or birth (like NICU). If they cover the emergency c-section - they might...

Good Luck and I hope that everything works out for you.

Double check with state you would be surprise they DONT want pregnant people to go without care play it as a Hypithetically when you call

H.,

Unless some major medical emergency happens, you can definitely stay under $20K. I had regular prenatal visits, 2 ultrasounds and a regular vaginal delivery in the hospital with Pitocin but no epidural and the insurance company was billed for less than $10K.

Doctors bill insurance companies and individuals differently. Individuals get a lower rate than insurance companies do for the same thing.

I have quite a few friends with lousy insurance and they opted to go with a midwife instead of a doctor and it was considerably cheaper. You can still deliver in the hospital if you want with a midwife, but if you end up having a c-section, you get turned over to a doctor you don't know.

The last economic option is to have a home birth with a midwife which costs about $2-3K for all nine months care and delivery. I have a few friends who are trained midwives and I know more than a dozen people who have chosen this option for delivery, often because they have lousy insurance. I personally wouldn't do it because of the risk of being at home when there is a complication, but my friends who have done it swear it's the most enjoyable birth in the world. If you choose to do this, I would recommend you live within a short driving distance of a hospital, just in case.

Good luck,
S.

I ended up in the hospital on bed rest for 3 months and it was well over $100,000. Hopefully that would never happen to you!!! ...but just something to think about.

H., I don't know how much it will cost you to have another. I just wanted to post a response in your defense because the fact that you are asking this question shows that you are not planning to have another child if you can't afford it. You are trying to be responsible and determine if you can afford it. I hope that it works out for you.

A.

In 2007 when I had my daughter the total cost was around $44,000.00 (this included numerous scans and an emergency C-section because of low amniotic fluid). My daughter's bill was over $100,000.00. Of course, the cost of one Tylenol was billed as $4.00. One Percocet was $22.00. $22.00!!! I know some states have a sliding fee scale if you make too much for medicaid. Also, some doctors offer a discount if you have no insurance and there are preferred provider programs and birth centers which are supposed to cost less than going to your local hospital.

Hospital Price Check can give you an "idea" of the average cost of all types of procedures including OB. Go to:
www.mnhospitalpricecheck.org

And good luck.. my first childbirth was relatively uneventful but my second was wrought with many complications for myself and the baby and ended up in an emergency c-section and the bills were overwhelming, even with good insurance.

H.:

I live in Blair, NE and had an unexpected pregency with my husband, so we didnt have the finances. I chose to deliver in Fremont(Fremont Area Medical Center) because it has all the accomadies as a large town hospital but at a cheaper rate. I went to the women's healthcare clinic in Fremont for pernatel care. We do have good insurance and it covered 80% my bills(after the 80% taken off):
FAMC-$900
Women's Health Care: $800
Anistesia: $161

If you set up a payment plan, they will take it and not fight you as long as you keep paying them something each month.
At the Women's Health Care clinic, they have one very nice lady that is in charge of all the billing. She figures the cost of everything for you (Including expected hospital cost) and sets up a payment plan. They like you to have it paid by your due date but we couldnt afford it (husband lost job) We ended up paying $25.00 month. Now 2 years later we are all paid :)

My advice to you (huge Dave Ramsey Fan) is set up a budget and make a baby account (you can only use that money for baby #2), put an ammount away each month until you have a nice cusion cover a good % of the cost. Then try for baby #2. Also you can look for a part-time job such as starbucks that offers good insurance for part-time help. That would also aid your baby fund.

Good Luck

M.
____@____.com

The cheapest option is homebirth. I had a c-section with my first, and the total bills were probably around $20,000. Since then, I've had two homebirths and the birth fees were $1,500, plus $35 per prenatal visit. The cost of a midwife will vary according to where you live and if you're using a CNM, CPM, or a DEM. As homebirth midwifery is illegal where I used to live, we used DEMs. We paid for the whole thing out of pocket, and a lot of midwives are willing to work with you on a payment plan.

I had what they considered a normal vaginal birth with my son. They had to give me pitocin to help me progress (apparently progressing by 3cm in a few hours wasn't enough) and I opted for numorphan (pain med that takes the edge off but you still definitely feel pain) and no epi. The total delivery was around 5 thousand dollars. That was for the time from when I came in at 2am and left at 10am on the 3rd day.

For my prenatal care I remember paying 2 bills for almost 400 each then the last one was around 200.

Check your hospitals policies, you might be able to get discounts for paying in full upon receiving the bill, ours was 10% discount, so it helps if you do that with all your bills. We didn't qualify for insurance/medical assistance prior to birth, but after birth my son qualified for it and with that I had an opportunity to apply for payment of back medical bills. I had paid all the prenatal bills but it ended up paying for my bills from labor and delivery. It also gave me medical assistance for 2 months after my son's birth so it covered my postpartum visit and starting birth control. Don't rely on that, but do look into it once you give birth. The qualifications for a child to get assistance is a bit more forgiving financially.

Just a suggestion, but you should check with Blue Cross/Blue Shield Insurance. You can purchase a medical insurance rider that covers just prenatal and birthing costs (or at least a portion of it) in addition to your regular coverage for a low cost. It may be beneficial for you to check that out, as it is much more cost effective to do that than to have to pay all prenatal care and birthing costs. Also, there is no reason why your local hospital billing office shouldn't be able to give you a cost for a non-complicated birth, and prenatal care doctor visits. The only reason they wouldn't is because they don't feel like doing it for you. I know my hospital here will do it for people.

Good luck, and God bless!

For the delivery, I can tell you that we have insurance that paid 80% of most of the cost and we still ended up with a bill of $4128.96. Some stuff wasn't covered, like hospital socks and tylenol. Seems kind of stupid. Had I known that we were using those items and not being covered by insurance, I would have brought my own stuff from home and I would have also left a day earlier. They charged us $12.00 for a dose of tylenol!!! With our other two kids we did not pay a dime, so this was a shocker. I had a non-complicated vaginal delivery and was only in the hospital from a late Friday night to an early Sunday morning. Good luck with your choice on whether or not to have another child and getting a hospital to actually give you a "price" for the delivery ahead of time.

H.

The income guidelines for the pregnant woman to qualify for medical assistance are quite high. Call your county of residence or go to the MN DHS website.

P.

Minnesota health assistance programs can help with that. Another option is to choose to do a homebirth with a midwife- those usually run $3-40000. And are a flat fee.

Mine was over $11,000 but I had pre-eclampsia so that is high. You might want to check into All Kids insurance through the state. I don;t have it but my friend does and although she has a high income, she is covered during her pregnancy and then the kids can continue to be covered but she has to get her own after the pregnancy. At least it would help through having the baby though. I think the website for it is www.allkidscovered.com

Hi,

I'm a doula and parent. The cost varies from a couple of thousand (homebirth & prenatal visits attended by a lisenced midwife) to over $15,000(C'sec in a hospt., not counting prentatal & post partum care). Here is a website that can help you find costs:
http://www.minnesotahealthinfo.org/
look under "comparing costs and quality".
An excellent option for you to consider is homebirth. All the research shows (look it up yourself)that if you are a healthy pregnant woman attended by a liscensed skilled midwife, then homebirth is as safe or safer than hospital birth (and much much much cheaper!). See this website for info. on MN homebirth:
http://www.minnesotabirth.com/pregnancy-and-birth/224-mn-...
Yet another option which is in between a homebirth and hospital birth is a birth center. The twin cities now has one and will soon have two options: Morning Star birth center in St. Louis park, and Health Foundations birth center in St. Paul.
Don't dispare! And remember that pregnancy and birth is not an illness but rather a wonderful journey!

I am just chiming in so Kathy H doesn't feel so alone. Having children is not a right. Your perceived right to have a child for free or at a rock bottom rate simply means the costs are passed on to others.

My husband and I both work. We have reinvested in our education. We live in a teeny tiny home. All so we can be employed with companies that have competitive benefits and so that we can afford to pay into a quality healthcare plan. And by quality, I mean both my pregnancies came with free pre-natal and both c-births cost us about $300.

I would be very careful of how you take all the advice...A normal birth cost can escalate with one minor or major problem (which can happen in a second...and they happen all the time). Just the birth experience for a normal vaginal delivery is anywhere between about $6000-$10000 if you leave the hospital ASAP. Add Dr visits which are usually about $150+ each time, and an ultrasound, which I think is about $750-$1500 each, and you have a tidy little sum.

To gain state aid, in most cases, you have to show you have absolutely nothing to fall back on...no savings, nothing to sell, etc. You have to make a below a certain income.

As a normal pregancy can turn into a medical emergency in minutes, I would highly recommend you maybe hold off until you get some decent medical coverage. I have a friend who owns apartment building(s) - yes, multiple buildings and has a chunk of change in the bank, along with owning his own business. He works a maintenance job for another apartment owner... just to get medical coverage.

I know money doesn't make love...and you don't have to be wealthy to be a good parent by any means...By let's face it - kids aren't cheap. Wait until you are at a better point in your life so you don't have to wonder "what if..."

My daughter is 18 and had a baby at UNMC - she had an epidural an was in labor about 6 hours. It was a nice room and she stayed 3 days and total her bill was $6,000 and the bill for the baby was about $1,200.

I know homebirth option has been suggessted. Many people think it is very dangerous. If you do your research you will find it is safer than hospital delivery. Typically you have a great relationship with the midwife and complications are noticed far in advance and there are far fewer complications. Again it is much cheaper total cost for everything being around 3000 (depending on where you live). If you are in the DesMoines area I can give you a recommendation if you want or answer any other questions.

As of right now, 3 month's after the birth, my pre-natal and hospital bills total about $93,000. Yes, I did mean ninety-three thousand. Of course this wasn't your typical birth because I had some serious complications and both the baby and I were in the ICU for a week after birth. I write this because that's something you have to consider. While you can't plan for complications, you should keep the possibilities in mind. My complications came on suddenly and I had to have an emergency c-section that day. We tried to get pregnant for 2 years and I didn't have insurance the first year we tried so I am just VERY lucky that I did end up having insurance when we actually DID get pregnant. Of the total $93,000 so far, I am only having to pay about $800 of it because of my excellent insurance.

I hope you are able to figure out what is the best decision for your family. Best of luck to you! =)

I had a c section. Here were our out of pocket expensese, after insurance (80%).

Dr $1100
Assisting dr $120
Anesthesiologist (can't spell that one) $500
Hospital $1500 (Monday morning -Wed afternoon)
Hospital for baby $150

I believe that was it. Around $18500 total if I'm doing the math correctly.

ETA: I know you already said you don't want a homebirth, but for the other posters...Midwife attended homebirths are illegal in NE (not sure of the exact law, but it is illegal for a midwife to attend a homebirth) and there are no birthing centers in the state.

You can do an unattended birth legally, but that's not for everyone (not for me, clearly since I had a c section).

H., I had a vaginal delivery with no complications at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. My total bill was $24,000 and my daughters' bill was also $24,000. I think we paid a total of $250 because my husband has excellent medical coverage, thankfully because we were broke when we came home from the hospital. I had no paid maternity leave so we were living on peanuts for 2 months. We ended up doing a payment plan for the $250 and the insurance company didn't argue. As long as we were giving something every month they were happy and sometimes we only gave $15 a month! I hope everything works out for you!

You are getting a lot of very different answers (and some judgments) for asking this question. I'd like to say "good for you!" for planning ahead and getting information before taking action with this! That uninsured or underinsured medical care is unaffordable to most of us is a fact in our country right now.

There are websites available that will list comparable costs for various procedures between providers. You can also call around (and pretend you are already pregnant if necessary) and ask for this information. The hard part is, you can't know ahead of time if you will have an uncomplicated pregnancy and birth or a medically complicated one. That's why insurance exists (if we could all get reasonable insurance, but that's another discussion :-) I would investigate all alternative insurance options - riders, through the state, etc. just in case things don't go well. You are right not to want to risk your savings and more in that event.

Our insurance covered 80%, before insurance paid their part the total for doctor visits and delivery came to about $25000.

This might be a little higher then some because of the following:
*** Had diabetic complications (ended up not being diabetic but went through many blood tests which adds to the bill)
*** Had low zinc levels, and the pills I had to take where expensive even after insurance
*** Delivery took 30 hours and ended up with an emergency c-section because my heart started to give out (this was out of the blue, no previous heart issues, and after many tests my heart still seems to be in top condition)
*** Stayed in hospital 4 days because they wanted to make sure I was ok, also was on strong pain killers after surgery which I am sure added to the cost

Some complications can not be predicted so you have to be ready to pay extra just in case, even if you go the midwife route. Maybe look into getting a 2nd insurance for the time you will be pregnant, if you can not afford the 2nd insurance then morethenlikely you can not afford to have another child (unless you went the midwife route, but be prepared to pay if you have complications).

We have only one child, and even with insurance we have decided we are done (for now) because we want to save ever last penny because the economy is not the best right now.

H.,
Boy, you just never know how things are going to turn out. Last time around, I think our total bill (with c-section) was $30,000. Our insurance covered most of that. This time around, I had preterm labor and my baby had complications that sent him to Children's. Just the Methodist stay for the two of us was $40,000!!! I anticipate that the Children's stay will be upwards of $50,000 on top of that. Luckily for us, our out of pocket max is $5,000 (which is still a LOT), so we won't be saddled with $10,000 or anything like that. Anyway, you just really never know what it's going to cost. I had a totally normal pregnancy ending in a fever that caused him to be delivered early. Totally random!

Call the hospital where you want to deliver and ask for the Financial Operations department. Tell them that you are pregnant and need to know how much the delivery and postpartum stay will cost you. Tell them you are uninsured. There is a different flate rate for cash paying customers. They will give you the cost of a noncomplicated labor/delivery and postpartum stay. You can call the clinic you want to provide your care and they can give you even more of an exact figure. The clinics do not work as the hospital does. The clinic gets paid for your entire care and delivery based on a flat fee, not based on how many times you come to the clinic and what happens during pregnancy. The only exception to this are labs and ultrasounds.

As far as the state is concerned, you would have to go try AFTER you are pregnant and take with you a paper certifying that you are. Your best bet is to find another insurance provider in addition to yours during your pregnancy. I know that IA has a low cost or free based on your income supplemental healthcare for children and pregnant moms, unsure about your state though. Both of my pregnancies have totaled around $17,000 each if I remember correctly. Even if you don't have the coverage will your baby be covered as soon as he/she is delivered. If they are covered that will help you save, as well as if you don't have the pain meds during labor.

Good luck to you, I know that this is a tough decision, my hubby and I are in it too discussing our third, we need a bigger house =/ . Hope this info helps!

You could have a home birth or deliver at a birthing center. My midwife (who is under doctors licence) cost $1,200. Another $500 for prenatal care...way more relaxed this time around, ( had my second daughter 3 months ago) and she spent three times the time the doctor spent with me during my pregnancy. If your insurance is only going to cover emergency c-section anyway this may be the way to go. Good luck!

With both of our kids I saw the midwives at Mayo Clinic. With both of our kids I ended up with C-sections because I never progressed beyond 4-5 cm even with Pitocin. With both babies we needed the C-section because the babies started to show signs of heart distress. Both of my pregnancies were healthy and I had no reason to think I could end up with a C-section. I can't remember what the cost was for our daughter, but for our son (born 2 1/2 weeks ago) I think our total is close to $25,000 and I don't think we have gotten all of the bills yet.

Since a few people have mentioned home births,
I thought I would mention that on the Today Show this morning they had a report about home births. I don't have an opinion, but I do believe in looking at all sides before making a decision. Here is the link to the story: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/32795933#32795933

Good luck with your decision. I commend you for looking at the options before making a decision!

H.
I am in a Very similar situation only this would be our 1st child. My husband is also an independent contractor and I am an In-home childcare provider. Sounds like we basically have the same type of insurance. We want to get pregnant but I'm concerned with how much it would cost and if we could afford it. We are trying right now but the cost worries us and I would love to hear what the other mothers say. Good luck.