How Much Money Does It Cost to Have a Baby?

If you are inspired by the #tradlife and #tradwife movement, you probably want more babies! While it’d be awesome if everyone clearly had plenty of money for as many children as they’d like...that’s typically not the case. It takes planning, sacrifice and creativity. 

This blog isn’t about how much money it takes to raise a child, but simply how much money does it cost to go through a pregnancy and deliver the baby.

The cost of having a baby for me was $0.

I’ll tell you how that was possible (without insurance), plus I’ll give you a heads up on the many bills that accrue. We did have to deal with paying stuff upfront but we were reimbursed. This post is a must read particularly if you or your husband is an entrepreneur or if your job(s) don't offer great benefits. (Thanks to the Expensive Healthcare Act, fewer and fewer do.) Keep in mind I’m out of Oklahoma in the USA; things will differ depending on where you live.

If you have insurance, obviously you’ll have to be aware of your deductibles, co-pays and all that. This will help give you an idea of the gross costs you can expect and then you can work out what you can expect your insurance provider to pay based on the details of your plan.

What are the pregnancy and delivery bills you can expect?

During the pregnancy you’ll go to the OB/GYN a lot. I’m talking about 14 times, more if you have complications.

If you operate as self-pay like I did, you can get an agreement that covers everything. My particular OB/GYN charges all self-pay patients $2200, regardless of how many appointments they use. They were really easy about payments and because we had the agreement way at the beginning of the pregnancy, we were reimbursed before we had to pay much of the balance.

In my case, this arrangement did NOT include lab work or the 20 week ultrasound.

Pregnancy Lab work

Pregnancy screening $655

Gestational diabetes test $185

Some other lab work $19 & $29

Did you notice the pregnancy screening was way more than the other lab work? You can save a TON of money by shopping around. The cheap tests were through requestatest.com. After I had done my pregnancy screening at the lab my OB/GYN always uses, I found out I could have done it for less than $100 if I had looked for more affordable options.

20 week ultrasound: $265

My doctor goes easy on ultrasounds and I didn’t have any complications but it’s entirely possible for women to have more than 1 ultrasound. (My OB/GYN did have a simple ultrasound machine where we got to see the baby at 8 weeks and then check the positioning of the baby close to her due date. This was included in the OB/GYN agreement.)

That covers the pregnancy but there are a lot more expenses for the labor and delivery. I wish I could have had a simple agreement with the hospital the way I did for the OB/GYN but that’s not how it worked out.

Our hospital stay bills:

Hospital bills $11,162 originally but discounted to $7,256 (it came in two bills, one for me and one for the baby)

Anesthesiologist $2415 originally but discounted to $1932 for paying without a payment plan

Hearing test $239 originally but discounted to $120

Lab Work $71 (came in a couple different bills)

$150 for Pediatric rounds during the hospital stay

I was really concerned about having a huge hospital bill right after delivery, but we didn’t even receive the bill for a while. Once we had our itemized statement we got on an interest free payment plan and our first payment wasn’t due for a bit. The baby was born 2/1/18, we made our first payment in mid-April. We received our reimbursement check mid-August, four months later. (To be fair, I made a couple mistakes with submitting and I probably wasn’t as prompt as I could have been.)

Post-hospital pediatric expenses:

$75 for 1 week appointment

$75 for the 1 month appointment

That is $3,353 during the pregnancy, $9,529 for the hospital stay and $150 in Pediatric well visits in the first month including the discounts.

That’s $13,032 total for pregnancy, hospital stay and first month of baby health bills.

I did pay $135 for an initial lactation consultation and then $69 for a follow up that were not eligible for reimbursement. I have since learned that I could have received lactation support for free at the “Milk Bar” at Integris Hospital in Edmond, OK. I attended one meeting there and after that I no longer needed special attention for nursing.

Also, be aware that babies continue to need more well appointments at 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months. 1 year, 15 months, 18 months, 2 year and then once a year after that. After the first 3 months, well appointments aren’t covered for reimbursement.

How did I get all this reimbursed?

It was all reimbursed through Christian Healthcare Ministries (CHM), a health cost sharing ministry. It is not insurance but it does avoid penalties under Obamacare.

Here are a few tidbits from their website that cover some of the most common questions I’m asked when I share about it.

CHM is a “nonprofit health cost sharing ministry through which Christians voluntarily share each other’s medical bills. It is not an insurance company. CHM is based on Galatians 6:2 (“Carry each other’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ”) and on the actions of the New Testament church found in Acts 2 and 4.”

“To be CHM members, participating adults must be Christians living by biblical principles, including abstaining from the use of tobacco and the illegal use of drugs (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), following biblical teaching on the use of alcohol, and attending group worship regularly if health permits (Hebrews 10:25). There are no restrictions based on age, weight, geographic location or health history.”

“Adult children can be a part of your membership until their 26th birthday as long as they meet all of the following qualifications:

They must be Christians living by biblical principles.

They must be single.

They must be your legal dependents (i.e. they must be reported as dependents on your income tax forms).”

“CHM has three main programs from which you can choose: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Membership also is based on units. One unit is one qualifying individual; two units are two qualifying individuals; and three units are three or more qualifying individuals. Gold membership is $150 per unit, per month; Silver is $85 per unit, per month; Bronze is $45 per unit, per month.”

You need a gold membership to have maternity bills covered. You must have a due date for delivery at least 300 days after joining CHM for bills to be eligible for sharing. I have some friends who miscalculated; big mistake.

In our family I am a gold member, our daughters are silver (it didn’t go up for the new baby because our family already had 3 units), and my husband is bronze. That’s $280 a month. I’ve heard friends say they pay almost $1K/month for their family’s insurance and then they have to pay co-pays and reach deductibles. Plus insurance makes it that much more confusing to attempt to find value in health care using free market principles like price comparing. For us, this was better than being on my husband’s insurance through work.

The con is that you have to pay for well visits but really why should insurance pay for that? That’s like your car insurance paying for you to get your oil changed. That sounds nice, but you pay more every month for that benefit. It was an obvious choice for us to save hundreds each month, even if some months we have to pay for a $75 doctor’s visit. Plus I love that it acts like true insurance. You don’t pay if something goes wrong. (Even though they like to emphasize, it is NOT insurance. It’s just that in my mind it works more like the way insurance should be.)

They also have an option for catastrophic bills (defined as bills exceeding $125K per illness.) I always hear about how when people get cancer or something like that, it totally destroys the family financially. During such a trial it is such a blessing to know that 100% will be reimbursed. This option is called “Brother’s Keeper” and you can be covered with a $40 annual (nonrefundable) fee per membership plus a variable quarterly fee. So far I believe the quarterly fees have been about $80 and I believe that covers my husband, me and our first daughter. I believe it historically has ended up being a bit over $10/month per member. I pray we’ll never have to take advantage of this but I love knowing that I am supporting fellow believers during their times of struggle.

Another con is that it’s not always easy to get straight forward answers about price. The organization encourages you to shop around and ask for discounts but sometimes people get soooooo confused when you say I’m self-pay. Why this is so difficult, I don’t know. This just shows how desperately healthcare needs transparency in prices and to untangle from the web of private insurance.

Additionally it does get a little annoying when people act like your poor and in a rough patch in your life without insurance. This is just an exceedingly better option than most insurance plans. I should feel sorry for THEM for not considering creative and superior solutions for health care.

Either way, like I say, $280/month for a family of 4 ain’t bad. I love that it won’t go up when we have more kids. I love that we didn’t have to pay for anything for the whole pregnancy and birth (which grossed at over $13K including self pay discounts.) Yes, our well visits cost $75 for our kids, but actually I believe they are reimbursing the appointments for the first 3 months and that is still cheaper than spending hundreds more each month on insurance premiums.

If you decide to go with Christian Healthcare Ministries, please be sure to share that Alexandra Davis Member ID: 298534 referred you!

That gives me a free month of membership, which would be a tremendous blessing to our family without costing you a dime! I truly believe in this ministry and it’s saved our family hundreds every month. Whether you use my name or not, I believe this is a great option! If something about this particular cost sharing system doesn’t work for you, I encourage you to research other similar programs.

Find out more about CHM at https://www.chministries.org/howitworks.aspx