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Natural Birth
eyris
member
My little guy! Everett Richard born 9/3/13
Advice on Home Birth
eyris
member
Hi ladies,
As you can see from my ticker, I am very newly pregnant. 
I have been planning on this for over a year now and have done lots of research and even though it is early, I would love to be able to do a natural home birth.
My insurance will not cover anything regarding home birth or even a birthing center, so my only choice is the hospital if I don't want to pay out of pocket.
So my question is: How much should I expect to pay if I go it alone and pay for a midwife/home birth myself?
I'm sure prices vary by location, but I'd love to get an idea of price range.
TIA!
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Advice on Home Birth
Thanks for your input.
Did your insurance cover it?
Our homebirth midwife cost $4000, which included the birth and all the prenatals and postpartum visits.
We rented a birth tub for around $300.
Our annual health insurance deductible is $5000, though, so it was comparable to a hospital birth (assuming we didn't have much other medical expenses during the same plan year).
I didn't bother with trying to submit for insurance, because from what I heard my insurance wouldn't cover it and it just sounded like too much work. Some midwives include an insurance billing service but mine did not. Insurance did cover an anatomy scan ultrasound, though ($400ish).
My homebirth cost $5000 for the MW, and the birth kit was about $60. Our MW brought the tub, etc so that wasn't extra. Eye ointment, vit K, etc is all extra. PKU testing is $120 or so, but I've been told my insurance WILL cover that (b/c the State reimburses them for it). The other $5000+ my insurance will not cover (though I intend to ask them to, out of principle).
ETA: Just wanted to add that all our bloodwork and ultrasounds, etc were done through insurance so no out of pocket for that or else it would've been a lot more.
Thanks everyone for all of the responses. I appreciate it!
I will be doing some homework over the next few months.
DC metro region
my MW, a CPM, charges $3,000 plus $500 for a birthing assistant. paid separately. that did not include lab fees, which my insurance paid directly because i had them done at the lab or at a clinic (sonography), which was covered.
other expenses were optional, but very much part of my pregnancy experience: chiropractor visits, massage therapy and acupuncture. my insurance paid the chiro visits (i paid a co-pay), i bought a membership at Massage Envy, so only paid $50/mo for massage and i paid totally OOP for the acupuncture. it was all so very much worth it!
growing a foosa
My homebirth is $3600 + 1 ultrasound (which insurance covered) + $50 for a birth kit + $200 for a birth tub rental + $100 for childbirth classes.
Our insurance does not cover homebirths specifically; however, my midwife uses an insurance billing company and let's just say they're good at what they do, so we will probably get something back.
Our homebirth cost $2300 for the midwife (included all prenatal care and 3 postnatal visits). Plus we paid $150 for the birthing tub, and roughly $100 in supplies for the birth, plus about $150 some labwork that our insurance wouldn't cover. So right around $2700 in total. Insurance would not cover anything.
I'm in southwestern Michigan and our midwife was in northern Indiana.
I live in KS. My MW (CPM) charges $2,000. We are paying an additional $400 for her independent birth center (basically, a home away from home, as our home is too far from a hospital). We are probably paying around $200 for supplies and labwork.
So, about $3,000 OOP. Insurance does not cover any of it.
my birth center (CNM) is $6000 OOP not including blood work and u/s... last time we had to pay everything because my husband had just switched jobs and insurance didn't kick in until July 1st... and DS was born as late as possible on June 24th... but we expected that
this time however we only have to pay $1000 deductible plus 10%?
when we were looking into home birth (LPM) the MW's were asking ~$3000
I think our fee was $2800. I ended up getting pre-e and had to deliver in the hospital. So, since my midwife didn't have to pay her assistant, she knocked off the $500. She submitted to my insurance even though they said they didn't cover home birth and reimbursed a whole $150 as a non-network amt.
So I did have to pay the high deductable for the hospital at $5600 + 2300 for the midwife. Worse case scenario for us.
I just spoke with a midwife today. I was super-excited to finally find one in my area.
I'm almost positive our insurance will not cover anything.
Fees: $2k, including all prenatsl visits, delivery, use of her tub and 3 postnatal visits. $40 for a kit that includes a pool liner and such.
It sounded bad, then I started counting: my OB wants me to prepay across four months over 800, and I still may have to pay more. $30 per visit copay, plus the fact that she's always behind and never warns patients, so I lose two hours of work for every visit. That's not counting if I incur charges at the hospital. Bam. I'm over 2k.
Midwife offers (and slightly prefers) after-hour or Sat appts because she homeschools, so no lost hours at work.
Check out my Team Green baby names! P.S. I'm not serious with any of the names
My BFP Chart
BFP 9/7/12, EDD 5/15/13
MW interview said 5/17/13 and changed back to 5/15/13 after first visit
The midwife we used with our first was 2200, the one we are using this time is 2800-but a doula is included in that fee. I still have to get a birth kit seperatly and rent a tub. Something to think about though is how much your insurance will cover-ours is crap so it is actually less to pay a midwife out of pocket than to do a hospital birth and use our insurance. The only downfall to this is that the midwife has to be paid in full before the birth and with hospital bills you can pay them for as long as you need to post birth.
We are in New England
$3200 (including pre- & post-natal care), $250 for birthing tub rental, $60 birth kit supplies: total $3,510 OOP
My lab work was covered by insurance, nothing else was.
Worth every penny in my opinion. GL!
I'm in MO.
My midwife charged $2,500. I called my insurance a couple times. The first time they said they did not cover homebirths. I think they didn't have enough information to know how to bill it. The 2nd I asked if they covered "midwife services". They said it would be charged at the out of network rates. My midwife had a provider id. You may want to frame things differently when asking your insurance.