Healthcare doesn't come cheap in America, and giving birth is no exception. Costs are a big factor in many young people's decisions to either wait to have kids or remain childfree. But exactly how much are those costs?
To find out how these costs affect parents, we asked Americans in the BuzzFeed Community to reveal how much they paid out of pocket to give birth. Here's what they had to say:
1. "I developed severe pre-eclampsia around 26 weeks. Thankfully, my husband's company has incredible insurance because we only had to pay a $500 deductible for my ambulance ride, C-section, and six days in the hospital."
2. "I had my daughter (unplanned) when I was a junior in high school. She was born at 30 weeks. For the delivery, and her entire seven-week stay in NICU, I was put $432,000 in debt without even graduating high school yet. I’m 32 now, and I'm nowhere close to paying it off."
—Mary, Utah
3. "Because I spent a ton of time researching insurance options, I switched plans three months before giving birth so I only had to pay $750 out of pocket. My prior insurance would have had me pay $6,800 (10%) for a $68,000 birth. Most people aren’t given any help or instruction, so people have no idea that options may exist. If you can, do your research!"
—Maggie, Philadelphia
4. "I was induced and had a vaginal delivery, stayed a total of two days in the hospital, and was billed $16,000; after insurance, I still had to pay $6,000. A week after giving birth, I had postpartum complications, became septic, had emergency surgery, and spent six nights in the hospital."
5. "$6,200, and that's just what I had to pay the birth center, since they are not in network with my insurance. I tried to get an exception, but since there is already a birth center in network — more than an hour away — I was told no."
"This doesn't include my bills from the labs where my bloodwork was sent, the cost of the medications, complimentary care I needed to be well during my pregnancy, or my postpartum recovery costs. I'm so over this country and its inability to see past the end of its cis/het, old, white male nose."
—Anonymous
6. "My bill that I still haven’t paid was over $120,000 due to me almost dying from blood loss. $120,000 to not die for a child I was told was too late to abort (I love my son; don’t get confused). The cost was the whole reason I wasn’t ready to have a kid."
Editor’s Note: BuzzFeed supports a person’s right to an abortion. If you, like us, feel impassioned about abortion rights, learn more or find a local fund to donate to here.
7. "My kid was born with a condition that required many weeks in NICU. The bill ended up at $775,000. I work for the hospital I delivered in, and insurance covered the whole thing. It’s ridiculous and awful that some new mothers would’ve been saddled with that bill as a result of something entirely out of their control."
8. "I had preeclampsia with my twins, an emergency C-section at 36 weeks, and a five-day hospital stay because my blood pressure took a while to stabilize. My twins were having issues with feeding but only went to the NICU for a couple hours for observation. My bill was about $130K."
9. "Before insurance, the total cost for my bill, the separate bill for my daughter, the OB-GYN, and anesthesiologist was nearly $40,000. After insurance, we ended up with paying only $2,000. I don’t know how anyone without insurance could ever afford a child, and that saddens me greatly, as I couldn’t imagine not having my children."
—Kelsey, Indiana
10. "It cost me $15,000 for an induction with no complications. We even left earlier than we should have to avoid the extra charge from the hospital."
11. "I was induced at 37 weeks due to pre-eclampsia. I had to take meds to soften my cervix, then Pitocin, and three epidurals because the first two didn't work. Had a vaginal birth, and the baby went to the special care nursery for a few hrs, not NICU. My total stay was five days. The bill was $42K, and I paid out of pocket around $4K with all the appointments too. I couldn't believe that's how much it was!!"
12. "It cost me about $7K after insurance in 2019 for an emergency C-section birth plus a NICU stay. We were only in for two days. I have pretty great insurance for my area. To put this into perspective, the year before I had a D&C for a miscarriage. I was there for a total of five hours, and it cost me $6K after insurance."
"Had I been allowed to get the same procedure at a Planned Parenthood, it would have cost me $750 and not totally drained my HSA account that I carefully saved to have a baby. I just paid the birth bills off."
—Danielle, Indiana
13. "My husband was active duty military when our son was born. I had to use the military hospital, but it cost us $0. He left the Army when our son was 3. Knowing what it would cost to have another child with our new insurance plan ($9K deductible plus 20% of surgery costs), we decided not to have additional biological children."
14. "It was an uncomplicated birth. I had Pitocin and an epidural as well as one dose of fentanyl. Stayed for two days in the hospital afterward. They charged my insurance $20K. Insurance left me with about $800. Seems like a great deal, but who has $800 just lying around?"
15. "The total was about $30K; nothing out of the ordinary or complications or anything like that. With insurance coverage, we still had to pay about $3K out of pocket. COVID had just started, so the hospital allowed us to do a payment plan, and was really nice, asked us what we could afford per month, etc. From what it looks like, we were one of the lucky ones!"
16. "It was around $4,000 for a complication-free delivery with two insurances. We JUST finished paying it off when we found out we were pregnant again."
17. "I had a C-section with really shitty insurance. It cost $28,000. I also had to pay my doctor $3,000 before the baby was born. The hospital made me pay before the baby was born and took $8,000. They are still waiting for that other $20,000."
18. "My friend's baby cost them over $50K for a C-section and NICU. After insurance, it was $39K. It's all a fucking scam. The child was also born with a cleft palate, and those surgeries can cost a small fortune. Luckily, and I don't know how my friend did it, but he got the surgeries at practically no cost out of pocket, so thank God for that."
19. "I had no insurance. Gave birth in a small town in 1996, and it cost me roughly $6,000. Finally paid it off when she was around 7."
20. "With very good insurance, it cost $15K out of pocket for each of our children. That’s separate bills for the hospital, OB-GYN, pediatrician, standard newborn tests through separate entities, the anesthesiologist, copies of the birth certificate, and more. We also had to prepay our entire deductible for our second pregnancy despite having no late payments for our first. It’s a ridiculous system."
21. "I paid $6,500 to meet my deductible. The total cost was over $17K. Sadly, this was my first pregnancy, and my child was a stillborn, so now I have to do this again to hopefully have another baby."
—Anonymous, Houston
22. "At least $350K before insurance because of a NICU stay. Our portion was about $15K. My daughter was born in the last week of December and wasn’t released until mid-January, so we had two deductibles and two out-of-pocket maximums to meet. Also, that was the best plan my husband's job as a police officer offered. It took us over three years to pay it off."
