homebirth cost? - Page 2

[Persephone]

Hmm... The cost for her services is $1600. She rents birth tubs for $100. I'm buying some herbal supplies, and that comes to about... $50. And there might be a few more things in there that I'll need to get that aren't herbal for oh, let's make it $100 to be really generous. So, the total cost will be something like $1850 for the birth, and our midwife is letting us make it in monthly payments, so it's easier. I'm really grateful for that. Also, the first midwife we looked at was over $2000, so hearing her price was really nice! Now, please, someone inform the insuranace companies how much cheaper it is to homebirth than hospital birth! According to a nurse in my doula training, that much would barely cover the epidural!

[Peppamint]

Originally Posted by alegna

I would do ANYTHING I had to to have a homebirth though. I'd sell off stuff and rack up credit card debt to do it.

-Angela

:

My mw charges $1500 in southern Indiana. She is flexible as well if you start care with her later in the pg. I do have to buy things like gloves, chux pads and I'll just reuse my $25 tub. We'll be paying for it out of our tax return and it's a sizable chunk of our $20k-ish yearly income, especially considering I could have a Hoosier Healthwise paid birth at the hospital with an OB... but it's important to us to hb.

[Barcino]

I am paying $25.00 since my ins is covering it
I think my midwife charges around 2,000 or so for everything except ultrasounds or special blood work. However my ultrasound is also covered by the insurance so I am paying only the $25.00 co pay. I thought there was no way but my midwife's administrator that deals with the insurances worked it out. She is excellent!

[JanetF]

It can cost $2000-$4000 in Austalia depending on which MW you choose and where she is. Some of us have private insurance that covers it, most don't. My feeling however is how can I *not* afford to home birth? Having transferred from home to hospital with my son's birth and experienced the hospital (s)care, I would sell internal organs to pay for a home birth. Perhaps not my uterus, but you get the idea The costs to me of PTSD, counselling, being suicidal, missing the first 2 hours of my son's life all thanks to a vindinctive hospital punishing me, cannot be tallied up in dollars. Mws aren't usually in it for the money unlike sObs so most (and I know lots worldwide as well as Australia) will take installments of whatever you can manage and not expect the last till after the birth.

And for the person who asked what the $$ actually covers. This is my list

Monthly prenatals of at least an hour's duration from 14 weeks - 36 weeks then weekly after that.
A birth plan meeting at my home of about 2 hours. She also brought me flowers LOL.
She was on call to me 24/7 from when I hired her.
Borrowing hundreds of journals, books, videos, magazines etc throughout my pregnancy.
Being with me from strong labour onwards and having checked on me twice through early labour.
Going to the hospy and fighting for hours with them. If he'd been born at home she would have stayed a few hours after his birth and remained on call to me after that.
She came to our home every day for 5 days after he arrived and provided support for bf as well.

And I can't put a price on the normalising and support she provided in my pregnancy. Yup, I say it again, I can't afford to *not* home birth.

[catballou24]

our's charges $2800 but gives $1000 discount if paying with cash (ie: payments) by 36 weeks... we got her paid by 36 weeks as i also have medicaid and they won't pay for homebirths. it's totally worth it in my opinion.

[UUMom]

My insurance coverd two of my hbs completely, but i had to pay my last when we switched insurance. It was 3500, for 36 weeks of care. We used our tax return.

[Rach]

Originally Posted by alegna

I would do ANYTHING I had to to have a homebirth though. I'd sell off stuff and rack up credit card debt to do it.

*raisies her credit card debt hand*
Yep. We are paying 2000$ for ours. We paid entirely on our credit card. We made 200$ payments at each appointment, and then just recently charged the rest in full.
On the bright side, it raised Adam's credit limit. :LOL
We too, live paycheck to paycheck just about, but we knew we absolutely could not place my care in the hands of OBs and hospitals this time around. Though we'll be paying the baby off for quite a while, we feel it's worth it.

A lot of midwives will work out payment plans with you, since many people must pay out of pocket. Some may even charge you a lowered price if you're coming in later in the game. Some even let you exchange services [yard work, etc...] and take off a bit of the price.
I wish you much luck, I really hope you can get the birth you want!!

[Gunter]

About $2200 for prenatals, birth and four postnatal visits plus birth classes. May rent the aqua doula ($$??) and have to buy a birth kit that's about $35.

[Yemaya1]

My midwife charges 3200 with no insurance. 1600 fee(out of pocket) with insurance. I live in the Philly area.

[splash]

Our entire pg would have been $3600, another $125 for the tub. That covers all prenatal and postpartum care.
However, we did not get the actual birth... and our birth ended up costing over 30 grand!

[Peppamint]

Originally Posted by splash

Our entire pg would have been $3600, another $125 for the tub. That covers all prenatal and postpartum care.
However, we did not get the actual birth... and our birth ended up costing over 30 grand!

Good heavens! What happened?!

[babykaoss]

yeah, what happened?

[Mom2_3girls]

Our birth was 2000k including everything except the tub which was 150..although I didn't use it and birthed outside in my swimming pool... :LOL Thankfully I live in AZ and it was still hot in Sept.

[splash]

Originally Posted by busybusymomma

Good heavens! What happened?!

He went to 43 weeks, failed an NST, had low levels of amniotic fluid, and got stuck. She went into labor at 38 weeks, got to 4 cm, and stopped. Then he retreated, she closed up, and at 43 weeks he was still floating but she was losing amniotic fluid. So, in the middle of the night with our midwife's encouragement, he got a womb with a view. And after examining him, his placenta, and his location in the uterus, it was determined he probably never would have come out on his own, and he probably would have lived in the womb only for a few more days. And all the midwives we saw concurred, as well as the OB who had had 3 HBs herself. So... Charlie was not destined for the long and gloroius journey down the birth canal.
And, looking at Jean's family history, we should've known. We were hoping she would be one to skip that. All the women in her family have gone into labor ~38 weeks, gotten to about 4 cm, and stopped. Her own mother was at 4 cm for 2 days until they broke her water, which bought her another 20 hours at 4 cm until they did a c-section. Same story with her subsequent births and all her sisters' births. In Jean's 43 cousins (that were birthed by her mom's sisters, there are more cousins, but we're not counting them) there has been only one vaginal birth, and they broke his shoulder and mom's tailbone to get him out, because by the time they got to the hospital there was no way to pull him back, and he was desperately stuck.
Vaginal births apparently don't happen in her family.
Oh, and then Charlie was in the NICU for a while because he couldn't breathe.
Isn't it the birth we all dream of? Oh well. He's healthy, she's healthy, we're happy.

[Peppamint]

Well, I'm glad everyone is okay now! I'm sure that was a harrowing experience, but makes Charlie all the more precious.

[rad]

Ours have all been $3800. 95% of the first and third births were paid by the insurance.. The 2nd was paid 100%.

[witchbaby]

$3100, but only $2900 if you pay before 28 weeks-- which we did last week!
oh, but we still owe $66 for lab fees and will owe another $10 for the birth tub liner! :LOL

[guestmama9911]

My midwife here in Utah County charges $1200, to be paid in full by two months before the birth. That includes visits that last an hour (try and get THAT from an ob/gyn!), urine tests each visit (I have to monitor my sugar levels) and the occasional quick finger prick to check for blood if my urine level is really high. She also listens to Connor's heart beat each visit. After the birth, she will check up on us twice.

Rental of her birthing pool is $120.

My husband and I cut back in other areas of our budget in order to pay her. We believe it has been worth it, though we have not necessarily been strapped for cash and sacrificing really important things (the food budget has remained untouched), so we have been lucky in that respect. When we lived in Seattle and first started pricing midwives, they averaged between $2000-$3000.