Costs of birth center compared to home birth and OB

[dmpmercury]

I am hoping to get pregnant with baby number 3 but my husband changed jobs and we will have a high deductable plan when he is able to get insurance. I am wondering what the cost of a birth center or a home birth is so I can compare that to paying a high deductable and 20% of the OB costs.

I would do limited prenatal care and just have someone for the birth but I am just worried about how that would look. I am very low risk and would monitor and seek care if anything was wrong and would do an initial appointment and probably an u/s at 20 weeks.

I would consider a homebirth. I honestly love my OB and had a great natural hospital experience so I would use my OB again and probably would if I had the same insurance since I really had a good experience with him. I wouldn't mind a birth center birth or a home birth. I wouldn't choose a home birth since my house is pretty small and cluttered and it just where I'm living at the moment it isn't where I want to settle and isn't as clean or organized as I would like. I just had two meals at the hospital and went home and I liked that but I guess I can order take out with a home or birth center birth. The delivery of my son went very well and he just shot out and was born less than an hour after we got to the hospital. I like to be by myself in labor until the very end when I do want an attendent there. My husband and I are not comfortable birthing unassisted.

If you had a home birth or a birth center birth and had to pay for it what did it cost approximately? Do you have to do every pre natel appointment? My OB usually just measured my belly and listened with a doppler he didn't even test my urine which I could do by myself.

[bethanyclaire]

Most of the midwives around here charge between $3000-3500. That fee generally includes all prenatal care (an u/s would cost extra) and the cost of the birth itself. It also includes the postnatal care and the 6 week appt. The birth kit varies in cost but mine will be $50. In my experience, the fee is the same for the midwives whether you get some prenatal care or all of it. I do know that the cost varies from one region of the country to another. Hope this helps and that someone else can chime in with birth center costs. Good luck!

[Belle]

My midwives fee for prenatal, birthing, and postpartum care was $3600. This a a pretty average cost for midwifery care. They gave us a discount for paying them in full before 36 weeks so the cost was reduced down to $2900. We checked out birth centers also and with birth centers you have the facility fee ($3000) and the midwives fee. Our first was an unmedicated hospital birth and it cost $5000 5 years ago. I'm sure that hospital births cost more now.

We also have a high deductable plan. We met our deductable before the birth because dh had an emergency room visit. Our insurance ended up paying our midwives more than the 60% they promised they would.

We also live in a small cluttered space (apartment). It really wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be for the birth. Yes, we did need to clean up a bit before hand but it saved us 3 grand to birth at home and I didn't need to drive anywhere in labor. The closest birth center to us is 20 minutes away in ideal traffic. 40 min. in heavy traffic.

[Vespertina]

My midwife (in NC) with DS1 charged us $2500 (reimbursed us part of it since I didn't have him at home). That includes prenatal care, the birth and postpartum care. Birth kit was extra, which was somewhere around $35 or so.

The midwife I'm using now (in GA), charges $2900, but offers a discount if paid in full by 36 weeks. I paid her $2500. Services include everything I listed above. Just ordered my birth kit. It was $35.

I'm also in a 2 bedroom apt. with my girls. DH is deployed.

The cost certainly varies depending on the region or area you're in. We it looked like we were going to move to CA last spring/summer I called So Cal. midwives and their fees ranged from $2900-3600.

[MidwifeErika]

I had an unmedicated hospital birth 3 1/2 years ago and stayed for like 12 hours pp and our bill was about 5500. That did not include labs, prenatal care, and if we would have stayed longer it would have been about 1500 a day for me and the baby. 2 years ago I called a few hospitals to ask them what the costs were of a vaginal birth and a c-section birth and they said that unmedicated vaginal births were about 7,000 just for hospital fees, not including dr. fees. So, I would expect that an unmedicated vaginal birth can range from about 8,000 to more than 12,000 depending on location, length of time, and if they do any additional procedures. Figure somewhere around 200 per prenatal appointment and don't forget the lab work and ultrasounds which can add on several hundred more. You can always call your local hospital and OB GYN billing people and ask them what the costs for each item are to give you a clear picture of what your expenses would be. It could easily become more than $15,000 for prenatal care and the birth.

Around here a midwife runs about 3,000-4,000 for the entire package.

[GoldmanBaby09]

Honestly, Dianna, I would sooo go with a homebirth! We had good insurance when my son was born and a hospital birth would have only been a $200 copay, total. But we paid $3300 out of pocket for our midwife and it was worth every single penny! Birth centers, IMO, are mostly a waste. Why pay money to drive and birth at someone else's house when you can just stay home? And a good hb mw carries everything a bc has with her. I would look in your area (and try posting in Find Your Tribe on here) and see what midwives are out there. Some of them may be flexible with the fee and allow you to pay over the course of your pregnancy or give you a discount for paying cash. Some may also let you go longer between prenatals if you are having a healthy pregnancy. But I really enjoyed spending time with my mw and getting to know her and her getting to know us. Made me feel very comfortable come birthing time. And like Belle said, I wouldn't worry about the clutter and the space. I stayed in my bathroom and bedroom my whole labor and there could have been piles of garbage everywhere and I would not have known the difference.

[wannathird]

price

My first home birth was 2500 my second one will be 3000 a birth at the center here in Fort mill sc would be 4000 the midwives here in sc do use INS and require deposits if not the full payment or a payment plan and then give you a power bill to get reimbursed.

[kltroy]

I had an unmedicated and intervention-free hospital birth - we left 36 hours after the birth. The bill came to around $10,000. I was astonished! That was just the *birth*. My prenatals were on a separate bill...

[mamakori]

My hospital birth 5 years ago was about $10,000 billed to insurance (just for the hospital stay, doctors fees would have been seperate). My birth center birth was about $4500 (insurance paid 70%), but they had a lower self-pay amount. This time, my homebirth CPM midwife is charging $2350, which includes prenatals, labs, and the birth itself.

[lunarlady]

My first HBMW was a student (interm midwife I think they call it?) and so her fees were less. I paid her about $1800 for all prenatals and the birth.

My current HBMW charges $2900 for prenatals and the birth (labs and tests are extra).

The hospital here has a standard fee of $10,000 for labor and delivery only (no prenatals there.) Costs go up for epidural, IV, extended stay, etc.. C-section costs go up sharply, and start around $55,000 or so, plus doctors fees. So chances are good at 20% you will hit your max detuctable if you go to the hospital.

There are no birthcenters here, so I can't speak to that. You could try calling them, explaining the situation, and see what they say.

I say go for the HB. I'm so happy I did.

[tygrss]

Average fees for a vaginal hospital birth around here are ~$10,000, plus OB fees (they actually just had this info on the news a few weeks ago).

My midwife charges the same for a birth center versus home birth. She will bill insurance around $4000. If you self-pay and are a first-time client its $3200 and if you are a repeat client it's $2800. Fees for extra testing or extra U/S are billed separately.

[rhiOrion]

I believe the cost of the birth center birth here in NC is about 6k, plus labs and ultrasounds. And obviously more if you have to transfer.

I do think they maybe work with people who don't have insurance on some sort of sliding scale, though I'm not sure about that.

I definitely don't think a birth center is a waste... I've just got no interest in birthing in my house (and NO problem whatsoever with those who want to, but it's just not something I've ever been interested in). But then again, I'm the type of person who loves to go to hotels... so maybe it's the same concept!

[etsdtm99]

the total for my hospital birth including the OB was about 15k (including a 4k nursery fee when my ds did not spend one min in the nursery.. ) .. 2-3k after insurance (with good insurance and that was meeting the low family deductible)

my HBMW charges 1500 plus the cost of labs and a few back up OB visits (~75$ each)

i live in a 'low cost of living' part of the country .. hospital births seem to be comparable across the country, but HB costs seem to really reflect the cost of living..

[wifeandmommy2-4]

In Central Texas I paid 2000 for a free standing brithcenter birth. It includes all prenatal, labs, birth, and 6 weeks of postnatal care. Her fee is actually 5400 but she gives self pay a huge discount if paid by 36 weeks.

[major_mama11]

I paid $4200 out of pocket for our in-network birth center birth (we have very high deductible insurance which only covered $450 of it). I also looked into homebirth, and she would have charged ~$3500, with a discount for paying in full early. ETA: This midwife includes several postpartum home visits in this cost, while we had to drive to the birth center for all our postpartum visits.

We would have had to pay at least $5k out of pocket for a hospital birth, with our high deductibles.

And in our case, going to the birth center wasn't a waste- we had more privacy there than we would have had at home, with my next-door in-laws trying to look in the windows! But yeah, I'll probably do a homebirth next time anyway.

[snoopy5386]

our birth center birth is going to cost a bit over $5000 - 1850 for the facility fee and the rest for the midwife. DD's natural hospital birth with a midwife was around $15000.