Lets talk babies and money..

[Katai]

So...

I'm doing research on hospitals, baby costs etc because my husband and I want to try and have a baby next year. I'm a little worried about the
financial aspect of it as we do have a bit of debt.

Together we have about 6k in debt. I really wanna pay that off ASAP so that we can afford baby but I don't think thats going to happen in a year =/. All of my
pony sales have been going to my Credit cards to try and pay that off quickly. I'm hoping to earn extra from my ebay sales this year so that I can afford to
pay off those bills faster. I think its doable and possible to learn an extra 1k this year from just my ebay sales.

I was also looking into a doula. I'm not opposed to drugs or anything, but I really wanna try and do it without an epidurl. It would a. save money and B. be a big accomplishment. So I just want someone there who can be me advocate. However those ALSO cost money. I'm looking into free options

Which brings me to problem number 3...cost. I know that I've been told that the ultra sounds are NOT covered and you usually end up with a 1-2k hospital bill. Yowch!!! On top of everything else for baby. We're planning on getting the better insurance coverage through blue shield before trying to make a babeh so that we have more coverage but I'm still concerned.

So what do I want from you guys?

I wanna hear your experiences with child birth regarding cost, cost of delievery, ultrasounds etc. Was it expensive? Did you go through a state run program and save more money?

I was thinking if we qualified for medicare I'd just drop our insurance and go with that since it covers delivery 100%. I just need some advice on the whole baby.....thing. 

[hannaliten]

Well, it really depends on what insurance you have. With my first baby EVERYTHING was covered. I paid a $20 co-pay and never saw another bill.

With my second baby my doctor had a payment plan, so we paid the doctors fees over the 8 or so months leading up to the delivery. When we got the bill from the hospital we elected to pay that one in installments as well, over a few months. Most hospitals will let you do that without any extra charges.

[xeevee]

Initially babies actually don't cost a hell of a lot.  There is medical stuff you have to pay for of course just getting them here.  And the initial set up, but generally speaking they don't eat for 6 months, so you don't buy them food.  Their clothes are pretty cheap, and in most places you get tax cuts for having them.  Plus, assuming you have family yourself, you'll find grandparents are pretty over the top with buying stuff for babies.  I mean you don't want to rely on it, but I barely had to buy anything for my kids to start off with.  Oh, and 2nd hand baby stuff is easy to find and very cheap. 

I saw a graph once that showed that it wasn't until they are 5 that kids really start costing you money.  I now have a 7 year old and a 3 year old and I can contest to that.  With all the tax cuts and what not you get in Australia my son was actually earning me money for the first 5 years of his life.  Then school fees, and sports and birthday parties started to happen.  It also became really expensive to go anywhere because flights all count him as an adult. 

The initial medical costs really depend on your coverage and what you want to do though.  The only people you can talk to about that is your insurance.  My HMO covers most pregnancy costs, with only a few hundred dollars out of pocket.  I think epidurals are more, but honestly I haven't looked. 

Personally, I wouldn't go with a doula.  I mean, I didn't go with one.  But it's totally personal choice, and no one should try and talk you out of doing what makes you comfortable.  I just personally feel, that doulas do try and talk you out of doing the things that make you comfortable, where as obgyns are more open to listening to what you want (at least mine was).  My first child needed to be induced, and so I had an epi (despite being terrified) but it was what was needed due to my health.  My second was totally natural and I was in a bath for most of it and that was what I needed for that.  My OBGYN was just go with what you are saying. 

[Katai]

I've heard horror stories about hospitals pushing for C sections when you don't need it or pushing for meds. I wanna do light pain meds but would love to try for all natural. I just want someone to advocate for me. Though I think I can enlist and trust my husband because I don't know if I'll be able to when in that much pain. Because i know that sucker is gonna hurt.

[karrie91]

Are at home births still possible these days? I have an intense phobia of hospitals and am dying to have children in my future but I'd be so uncomfortable there...

[nhal039]

oh I have heard bad things about a doula but that was in nz I cant really say much cause I don't know how your health care system works but here its all free. I think you could still go to hospital and not have to get an epidural I think thats a personal choice (will it should be).
Babies are cheap, even my toddler is cheap ;  )

Post Merge: January 22, 2013, 07:34:10 PM

Just wanted to add go on you going the natural way :  ) I did and i can hand on heart say there worst pains than labour they just don't last for as long lol

[Katai]

You can have an at home birth. My husband said if we lived closer to a hospital we would have an at home birth. But..we don't. So hospital it is. I'd do a birthing center but its almost never covered by insurance. And theres only ONE in all of sacramento.

[ashes]

I have four kids - all girls (and all their birthdays are coming up in the next few months, so they'll be 8, 6, 4, and 2).  Honestly we don't necessarily feel the financial "burden" of having our children since we've been able to utilize hand-me downs (from them all being the same gender and roughly the same size at each age) and my parents live close by, so they like to buy them things too.  I think the largest purchases we've had to make for them are the crib (which we've used for all four kids and got in on sale for $100 at BRU), stroller, car seats, mattresses, and the bunk bed frame for our oldest two daughters (the other bed frames we didn't need to buy - one was mine when I was a child, which we sanded down and repainted white, and the other my mom found super cheap at a garage sale which we also sanded down and painted white).  But it's not like all of that was bought at once.  Get the crib one month, the stroller another month, etc.

I only had an epidural for my first daughter - the following three kids I had with no pain meds.  Each kid was roughly $1,000 - $1,500 (and that included prenatal care and hospital fees and ultrasound) except for our second daughter, who was a grand total of $50.  Yup - $50.  Because we had awesome insurance at that time.  But don't feel bad if you end up having pain medication - having a baby is no picnic, and it does hurt.  Although I will say that if your water stays intact, DON'T let the doctor break it.  Yes, it may speed up labor, but it makes the contractions MUCH harder.  With my third baby my water didn't break until I was dilated to 9 1/2 cm, and she was by far the easiest labor I had (born within 1 hour of getting to the hospital). 

Even now for healthcare costs, we don't pay anything for their well-child visits once a year (same goes for well-infant visits - those are at no cost too).  But if we have to see the pediatrician for any other reason, then it would be a $20 co-pay.  But I love our pediatrician.  He's kind and thoughtful, and always answers any questions I have over the phone.

As for schooling, we moved chose to pay a higher rent in order to send them to an awesome public school district (we live in CA too - just in the Bay Area).  Which over time is waaaaaaaay cheaper than sending them to private schools.

I didn't mind delivering at a hospital because I actually do like my OBGYN, and I was already there just in case something went wrong.

[OLumeVaSti]

I don't know too much on the subject. But have you looked into a midwife instead of the hospital route? Supposedly it is cheaper.

[Katai]

Whats the difference between a midwife and a birthing centeR?

[ashes]

Probably the biggest difference would be that the midwife would travel to wherever YOU are giving birth (home, hospital, etc).  And they've had some birthing training - you can usually see one for your prenatal check-ups and they know how to deliver babies.  Many often do practice WITH an OBGYN just in case that medical intervention is necessary.  And while a doula offers the mother the emotional support during labor, a midwife is there to act as an advocate between the mother and any medical staff, in addition to assisting with the actual labor.

[Stiletto]

You realize you are not meant to have children when you read this thread and would rather spend "baby money" on ponies! 

[achab1984]

Oh gosh when I had my water broke it was like $#%%!!! That is a good thing to know not to have your water broke!!! 

[CrazyCatLady]

I had my son years ago, so I have no idea what it costs now. But you can only plan so much for the circumstances surrounding a birth.  Sometimes a c-section is necessary, although you can tell your doctor you'd like to avoid it. Other things can pop up, like premature labor, pre-eclampsia, etc.
 I did want to say that Medicare is mostly for the elderly or disabled, and Medicaid is for low income people. It's pretty hard for an adult without children to get Medicaid, although I think the income threshold varies from state-state.  They look at your assets & income.
Also, the new insurance laws kick in for 2014, and everything would change then.

[lolaandbean]

I strongly (very strongly) suggest getting better insurance if you can get it. I ended up having a high risk pregnancy. I added everything up. If I hadn't had insurance coverage the whole thing would have cost me $36,000. With insurance it cost me around $2,000. That was for 2 hospital stays (one for a week,) c-section, ultra sounds every 2 weeks towards the end of my pregnancy. Pretty much after every ultrasound I had to go to the women's hospital for a couple of hours because my blood pressure would be up. I wasn't admitted to the hospital, but I still had to pay a copay. An ultrasound by a pediatric cardiologist. Did you know they can do an ultrasound on a baby's heart while it's still in the womb? Technology amazes me. I also had pre-eclampsia. Plus copays for regular check ups. Formula was not a cost I expected. I was unable to breast feed so I had to use formula. It is expensive.

I feel kind of like I'm trying to scare you off, but I'm not. I'm just saying that things don't always go as planned. Expect the unexpected and get good insurance coverage if you can.