By Patty Adams Martinez
July 01, 2013
Labor and delivery costs

When you find out you're pregnant, you can't help yourself—you start to worry about lots of things...morning sickness, how to tell your boss you'll need maternity leave, whether your ass will triple in size! Then the big question dons on you (or in my case, my husband, the family numbers' cruncher): "How much is being pregnant going to cost?!"

There are check-ups, ultrasounds (that lead to weekly visits in the final month before delivery), tests for things like gestational diabetes and genetic disorders (especially important if you're over 35). All of these things add up, and you haven't even gotten to the actual delivery yet, where every little thing given to you at the hospital is an additional charge. Epidurals aren't included. Need to be induced? That's extra. Emergency Cesarean? Wow, that's really going to cost you!



The really scary part is that not all insurance plans even cover prenatal care. So stop whatever you're doing right now and call your insurance company to see if you're covered. In 2011, 62 percent of women in the US covered by private plans that were not obtained through an employer did not have coverage for prenatal costs. And those whose insurance companies do offer coverage, still have to deal with higher co-payments and deductibles—and not all baby-related medical expenses are covered.




Image of hospital bed courtesy of Shutterstock.