# Is it expensive to have children?



## Zenas (Jan 6, 2009)

My wife and I will have a child whenever God sends us one. Whenever He does, is it expensive to actually birth the child? My wife claims that all health insurances only cover a portion of the cost, and that we will go into heavy debt to a hospital just having the baby. Is this typically correct? If so, how do you deal with it?


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## LawrenceU (Jan 6, 2009)

First, don't sweat it. If God gives you the grace of a child he will provide the means to bring it from the womb. As to costs, it all depends upon the manner in which you bring the child into visibility. Remember, childbirth is normal. It is not a medical abnormality; regardless of how the medical community treats it. Sure, there are medical conditions involved at times, but the vast, vast majority of the time the medical community creates more than they need to do. 

If you find yourself with a child coming you could do no better than to find your local Bradley method coach and learn all you can. Even if something happens and you find yourself in a legitimate C-section you will not regret it. (That is what happened with us. I firmly believe that I knew more about what was going on in the room than the OB nurses-all that from the training I had received.)


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## LadyFlynt (Jan 6, 2009)

Costs on birth cannot be predicted...because you cannot predict a birth. Insurance does generally cover the majority of it. Homebirth is also a good option for those that are not high risk.

God always provides a way.


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## Tripel (Jan 6, 2009)

My wife and I had our first child two years ago. It was a pretty expensive birth; a C-section, some complications with my wife, and a 5 night stay. 

Thankfully our insurance is pretty good, as it pays 90% or more. But we were still left with about $1,000 to pay. I think the total cost was around $12k. But again, that's for an expensive birth. 

We had our second child just a few months ago, so we have not gotten all of the bills yet. But I think that cost (C-section, 3 night stay, no complications) will be $8-10k.


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## PresbyDane (Jan 6, 2009)

Not to "rub it in" but here it is free including 5 days on a (what you would call ) a Ronald Macdonald hotel
But agian we pay for it in other ways.


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## N. Eshelman (Jan 6, 2009)

Two things that our insurance did not cover, and we did not get as a result (and some other reasons):

Epidural
Circumcision

They add about $1750 and some insurance providers will not cover them.


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## fredtgreco (Jan 6, 2009)

You should be able to contact your insurance provider and find out what they cover and what they do not. $1000 out of pocket for a medical procedure is not very much. It is also not significant debt at all (as was your OP question). You likely racked up more costs in this last semester's books.


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## Zenas (Jan 6, 2009)

This is encouraging to hear. Her brother has talked about how expensive it is to have a child and they "waited" a long time to have one until they could save up to where they felt comfortable. I was worried we might have a tough time if we were pregnant right off the bat, I mean tougher than "normal". We can handle a 1k hit, or even a bit more, especially for my child!


Now we have to agree on a name...


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## Jimmy the Greek (Jan 6, 2009)

As mentioned above, you can get specific childbirth coverage info from your provider.


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## sastark (Jan 6, 2009)

My wife and I have Blue Cross HMO and we paid nothing for the recent birth of our son. I think it truly depends on your insurance company and which plan you have. The best resource for you would be to actually call your insurance company (if you have insurance) and ask what they cover.


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## toddpedlar (Jan 6, 2009)

Zenas said:


> This is encouraging to hear. Her brother has talked about how expensive it is to have a child and they "waited" a long time to have one until they could save up to where they felt comfortable. I was worried we might have a tough time if we were pregnant right off the bat, I mean tougher than "normal". We can handle a 1k hit, or even a bit more, especially for my child!
> 
> 
> Now we have to agree on a name...



Generally speaking you also will not be browbeaten about paying what you owe to the hospital. That is, you should not expect that they'll charge interest, and you should also expect that you will be able to take as long as you need to to pay it off. They just want you paying regularly, and if it takes a long time, they're not so concerned.


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## Herald (Jan 6, 2009)

Is it expensive to have children? Yes. Have them anyway

My wife and mother-in-law work together at a doctors office. One of their co-workers, let's call her Marie, has two lovely children. She is getting married to the father of her children in July. A few weeks ago my mother-in-law saw her crying in one of the exam rooms. She told my mother-in-law that she was pregnant again and doesn't want the baby because the delivery date would be during the month of her wedding. Over the New Years holiday she had an abortion. My heart sank when I heard this. My mother-in-law is a believer and admonished "Marie" not to go forward with her plans to murder her baby. She didn't listen. I wonder how joyful her wedding will be knowing she killed her child?

My wife and I were not able to have any more children after Bethany was born. My wife still grieves over this. We wanted a large family, money or no money

The point? Be fruitful and multiple. Trust in God for his provision.


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## BJClark (Jan 6, 2009)

Agreeing w/ the others, it depends on your insurance, if you have an HMO, they tend to cover the cost minus any co-pays, if you have a PPO they tend to cover a percentage.

So instead of fretting over such things, contact your insurance provider and find out what they cover, most have a booklet that tells you those things.

Also, if you have a PPO, you not only have the hospital cost but the cost for the doctor himself and all doctors visits and tests and soforth, but even then you can call around to various doctors and find out what they charge, you can also call around to various hospitals and many of them can also tell you what they charge..they will also tell you that it can vary depending barring any complications or if she is given an epidural.

Also know that not all tests are required, like for example, some doctors want the woman to have an amnio to check for disabilities, this is NOT a required test, especially when you would not consider abortion as an option anyway...so if they suggest that, just tell them No.

When I had my children (the last was 14 yrs ago) I had an HMO, and only paid the co-pay for the doctors visits and the hospital, so again it will depend on your insurance and what they cover, so just find out before hand.


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## SolaScriptura (Jan 6, 2009)

It is patently incorrect to give an across the board answer to the "what will it cost me to have a baby" question. All insurance plans are different - even different plans within the same company will cover different things to different amounts.

I know. I worked 4 years for a health insurance company (Humana). 


There are some great insurance plans out there that will cover all of your costs - including epidurals and circumcisions (contrary to what was reported above).

We had 3 of our 4 children while in the private sector. Each of them was, incidentally, covered by a different insurance provider through differing employers. The first two merely had an initial $10 copay. The last had an initial $20 copay. That was it. Epidurals and circumcision of the boys included.

Our 4th child was born while I was in the military - so the entire process cost us nothing. (Thanks, top 5%!)

A place like UPS has PHENOMENAL insurance - better than the mlitary. 

I know we as Americans love to bash "big business" and support "small business" - never mind that most Americans are employed by "big business" - but from what I experienced in my own employee days as well as during my time servicing customers from many different companies - as a general rule (Note: I said GENERAL rule!) the larger the company the better the benefits plan.

So if your present plan is going to run you into the ground... maybe you should get another job - even if it is just a part-time gig at a place like Fed Ex or UPS.


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## matt01 (Jan 6, 2009)

Zenas said:


> My wife claims that all health insurances only cover a portion of the cost, and that we will go into heavy debt to a hospital just having the baby. Is this typically correct?



It all depends on the insurance that you have, as well as the amount of work (specialists that may be needed) for the delivery. We have two children, and both had very different experiences. When we had our first daughter, their was a $3000 co-payment charged for any delivery. This was above-and-beyond the $400 that we paid each month for our insurance. There were also lots of other charges, due to the actual procedure...When we had our second daughter in Canada, there was no charge. The insurance paid for everything. Check with your insurance provider, to see what your case will be.

The cost is really insignificant. Don't think about the cost of the pregnancy/delivery being expensive, it pales in comparison to the cost of diapers, formula, and all of the other stuff that is necessary.


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## Thomas2007 (Jan 6, 2009)

My experience going through this seven times is that it's about $ 10K per child, as of five years ago, for a hospital birth. However, this is about 3 times what it costs us sixteen years ago when our first child was born. Our last was a homebirth and the midwife fee was $ 750.00, that was three years ago.

We went through a process of changing our mind and attitude's about childbirth and allopathic medicine in general. I would reiterate what Lawrence said, our experience was:

1. The medical community treats pregnancy as a disease
2. They create situations to "treat" that in turn artificially raise prices
3. This is derived from their presupposition that pregnancy is a disease or abnormal condition.

In saying that, I'm not condemning the whole profession or saying it is always that way for everybody, it just seemed to be for us - six times in a row. I also don't think they "create" situations on purpose, rather, I think it is a result of their presuppositions and deficient care derived from that. I do believe that if there are problems one should take advantage of modern medicine, however, for normal pregnancies there is a marked difference in approach and presuppositions between allopathic medicine and more "natural" ideas.

While you may or may not have an interest in homebirth, I would suggest you at least talk with a midwife, and even if you aren't interested in actually delivering at home, hire her during the pregnancy to advise you and your wife. There's another name for ladies that are trained as midwifes but don't actually get involved in delivery, but I don't remember what it is.

We found that all of the complications we had experienced with all prior pregnancies, two of which resulted in miscarriages, could be completely avoided with proper care based upon a correct consideration of pregnancy and the actual medical needs of my wife to enjoy a healthy pregnancy. In turn, none of the complications we experienced six times in a row, under allopathic care, existed in my wife's seventh pregnancy under the care of a competent midwife.


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## LadyFlynt (Jan 6, 2009)

sans nom said:


> the cost of diapers, formula, and all of the other stuff that is necessary.



cloth, breastfeeding, babywearing, etc...you can cut these cost down as well.


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## SolaScriptura (Jan 6, 2009)

LadyFlynt said:


> sans nom said:
> 
> 
> > the cost of diapers, formula, and all of the other stuff that is necessary.
> ...



I wholeheartedly agree with the breastfeeding. In addition to it being healthier, it saved us a lot of money.

Along the food lines... for those who have infants: when your child gets to the age when they start eating "real" food... don't spend your money on baby food. Instead of buying a jar of Gerber's peas (or whatever) get a food grinder and grind peas yourself. The cost of 1 can of Wal-mart brand peas was less than one jar of Gerber's baby food... but that 1 can gave us the same food equivilant of about 3-4 jars of babyfood. Think about it.


About the cloth diapers... yeah, that is technically cheaper. 

But, perhaps I'm a cultural elitest... we tried that with our firstborn for the first few months. IT WAS SUCH AN UNBELIEVABLE HASSLE! Especially when you're like us and you do a lot of travelling. The money we saved was not worth the amount of work and hassle and mess we put into the cloth diapers. We quickly began to think of disposable diapers like staple supplies. Factor them into the budget and cut corners in other places. You don't have to use the expensive Pampers diapers... Walmart diapers worked just fine for our first 3 kids. (Now that we have more money, we go to Sams club and get a 156 pack of Huggies and it costs us $30. With our 1 year old that will go for almost 2 months. When I think of the hassle that it would be to use cloth diapers... that is one of the best expenditures we have in our budget!!!)


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## LawrenceU (Jan 6, 2009)

We used one of these. It cost about ten bucks then. Now they cost around 15. We never bought baby food.






We used it in restaurants and other's homes as well. I'm convinced that it is one reason that our daughter is not a picky eater. She like 'real' food, not processed junk.


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## SolaScriptura (Jan 6, 2009)

LawrenceU said:


> We used one of these. It cost about ten bucks then. Now they cost around 15. We never bought baby food.
> 
> 
> 
> ...



That's the same thing we used!!! Man, it was worth its weight in gold!!!


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## Tripel (Jan 6, 2009)

_We never bought baby food._

We did (and are doing) the same thing, although we didn't use a food mill like that. We just used a mini food processor that we already had, or just mashed things up by hand.


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## he beholds (Jan 6, 2009)

I've had two babies via two C-Sections, and the first one, under IKEA's health insurance (my husband worked there while in grad school), cost us like $40 tops, for all appointments, 4 sonograms, a c-section, and circumcision. The second, under our county's healthcare (my husband is a school teacher), cost us around $200 tops, for those things (with less sonograms and no circumcision).

Breastfeeding is certainly the way to go, if possible. 
I would hold off on cloth diapering until the baby is done with the newborn, yellowy, gross pooh (so whenever you are ready to start with solids), but there are moms and dads who use cloth from the start and my reasoning is simply convenience. 

And I agree wholeheartedly with not buying baby food. [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Super-Baby-Food-Ruth-Yaron/dp/0965260313/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1231265134&sr=1-1"]Instead, buy this:[/ame]


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## LadyFlynt (Jan 6, 2009)

Depends on the cloth diapers  They aren't your grandmother's cloth 

Fitted Dipes





Pocket Dipes


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## he beholds (Jan 6, 2009)

LadyFlynt said:


> Depends on the cloth diapers  They aren't your grandmother's cloth



Exactly!
Speaking of which...I've gotta go purchase some bigger covers for Evangeline. 
Otherwise, we'll be back in disposables for a long time...which will cost more in the end!


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## jwithnell (Jan 6, 2009)

You are wise to think ahead on this, although I fully agree with the others who say your individual circumstances and insurance will vary greatly. 

Many insurance companies have recognized that they're better off paying for good prenatal care instead of the costs associated with a high-priced delivery. If you find out your insurance won't help much, shop around if you have any choice in hospital or birth center and see if you can negotiate a better rate -- that's exactly what insurance companies do for their clients, they negotiate the costs.

You probably also want to ask other believers for recommendations on a doctor and start seeing him or her now. You can start doing things now to help ensure a healthy baby, plus you'll have the benefit of being comfortable with that person before you're in the ups and downs of a pregnancy. By asking other believers, you will avoid putting money in the pocket of someone who would support taking the life of an unborn baby.


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## jambo (Jan 6, 2009)

If you think having babies is expensive just wait until they become teenagers.

Why not come over to the UK and give birth for free?


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## Rangerus (Jan 6, 2009)

Babies are adorable and I really love them. Just don't let them grow up to be teenagers.  words of wisdom from a father of 3.


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## kvanlaan (Jan 7, 2009)

We had three of our four bio-kids in China, under three different insurance schemes (they were all C-sections). The first cost us $3K (was an emergency C) the next two were completely covered, as was the fourth in Canada (which, incidentally, was half the price of our second delivery and much easier on my wife than the Chinese delivery due to attitudes on pain meds here vs China).


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## moselle (Jan 23, 2009)

For what it's worth, our insurance (which is excellent by most standards) covers everything 100%, except for a $250 hospital stay co-pay. We had a one-time $20 dr. visit co-pay covering all prenatal visits, which the insurance company waved because we were using a licensed midwifery clinic.

In terms of how much the baby will cost afterwards, if you can squeeze an extra $25-$50 into your monthly budget, you should have *more* than enough. I find that convenience foods right after baby is born is the most expensive thing we deal with. That is easily offset by making meals ahead and freezing them. You can find thrift store/consignment/yard sale clothes for $1 or less. Inexpensive disposable diapers and baby wipes work as well as the name brands. Make baby food with a blender, although I usually keep a few jars on hand for convenience.

As others have said, God cares for his children and he will provide.


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## SpokenFor (Jan 23, 2009)

How to keep costs down: unassisted homebirth, cloth diaper, breastfeed, food mill, homeopathics, no vax, homeschool, trust that God will provide.


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