from Ben's mom
There is a line in Ben's baby scrapbook that asks us to list how much it cost to have him. It encourages you to look back at pregnancy/hospital charges and list them. With Ben not his normal active self, I decided to pull out the EOB's(Explanation of Benefits) from pregnancy & delivery and do the math. I've checked and double-checked. Duh-duh-ta-duh.
$16,484.22
This does not include the charges for being readmitted for jaundice the day after we took him home the first time. These are just the charges for prenatal and delivery and circumcision.
The thing that strikes me most is that when I think of my maternity experience, I think of the wonderful midwives who brought me through pregnancy and delivery. (Technically, Ben was delivered by Dr. Foster due to complications, but I had two midwives present the whole time.) The charges for their care are a very small part of the whole. It is the specialists who came swooping in and made lots of money.
Gratefully we had good insurance and we paid less than $16,000 of that. However, since we don't have maternity coverage now, don't count on a baby anytime soon. If something unexpected happens, you can count on many pitiful pleas for donations from Ben and his mom on this very site.
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