$10,000 for a totally straightforward 4 hour labour!!

[wannabe]

Holy Camoly! That's insane. My stitches must have been 24 carat gold.

[thefreckledmama]

Yep, it's insane how much it costs. Hard to believe that insurance companies don't generally like to cover homebirthing....or even advocate for them.

ETA: They just built a new hospital in our area...it has 4 floors, 1 isn't even open yet, and one full floor is a maternity ward...just goes to show what a lucrative business hospital births are.

[stik]

I've had two uncomplicated births now - the hospital staff literally stood around and watched me have a baby, occasionally saying encouraging things. $10,000 is about what I was charged too.

Did you get the itemized bill? I was surprised to find that my hospital charged the ins. co. $24 for a 2 oz. tube of Lansinoh.

[salt_phoenix]

holy crap! i can't wait to see my hospital bill... I've been in the hospital 3 weeks.

My first homebirth in 1988 cost me $700.
My 2nd homebirth in 1997 cost me $1200.
This one?

[elanorh]

Yes. Costs doubled between 2003 and 2006 here. And oddly enough, our community hospital is making record profits this year (with a baby boom going on in our community).

Lots of pictures of the nurses holding newborns in all their literature, too. :

[SublimeBirthGirl]

My uncomplicated 4 hour birth was free

[Ironica]

That's probably not what the insurance company's "negotiated rate" is, though. My c-section birth was over $32k (PLUS anesthesiology and labs that were on a different bill) and the "negotiated rate" was only $5000. Funny thing is, the hospital was a university hospital, and the insurance company was my student insurance from the same university... you'd think that they'd be more in line with each other to begin with, wouldn't you?

[georgia]

IIRC, my vaginal hosp. birth was around $5,000 in 1999 of which I paid $25. Of course, it lead to a $25,000+ NICU stay due to the interventions Not such a bargain.