What is the cost difference between delivering a baby with a DR vs. a Midwife?
Bywondering just an estimate of what the difference in cost would be delivering a child hospital-w/Dr vs. Home-w/Midwife. Thank you!
Related posts:
- What is the difference between a midwife and an OB/GYN?
- Might not be able to get a midwife. Cannot conceive of delivering in hospital as being a good thing. Help?
- What is the cost of a midwife delivery in a hospital w/o insurance?
- Anyone birth with midwife in hospital?
- What will be the difference between a midwife and a Dr?
6 Comments
April 10th, 2010 at 8:54 am
Both my children were born at home with a midwife. Our total expenses for each birth was between $2500 and $3000.
Although I haven’t had a hospital birth, the total cost estimates I’vwe seen for an uncomplicated vaginal birth with no epidural are about $10-12K.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:33 am
A lot depends on your insurance. A hospital birth without any intervention (in the Midwest USA anyway) starts around $6000. The doctor’s fee is wrapped into OB care, which usually starts around $4000. A midwife’s fee is typically a bit less. There is a midwife clinic here that charges $3400.
If you have problems with either method though, your hospital bills could go up into the $20’s.
April 10th, 2010 at 9:59 am
It totally depends on your area and insurance. Some insurance covers Dr. deliveries 100%, others only 80%. The same with midwives. Some insurance, but not all cover midwife costs. You have to verify with your insurance, also sometimes you have to meet a deductible first.
Without insurance, Midwives are much cheaper. Depending on your area, they charge between 3000-5000 for all prenatal appts. and a homebirth. Hospital birth (vaginal) usually cost about $8-10,000 for just the birth and 2 or 3 days in the hospital.
We are planning on a homebirth with a midwife. for our midwife we had to complete an insurance verification form that told us that they reimburse us at a rate of 60/40 because the midwife is considered “out of network.” Her fee for all prenatal visits, and birth is about $3000. We had to pay about $1000 for what the insurance didn’t cover, as well as some lab tests and vitamins.
April 10th, 2010 at 10:10 am
It depends on if you have insurance and if the midwife is covered. For my hospital birth I had to pay 20% of everything with my insurance so it ended up being around 3k (including all of the hearing, etc). I have heard a midwife cost about the same. It really all depends on your situation but if you don’t have insurance it would be cheaper to go with the midwife since insurance companies get better group rates than individuals.
April 10th, 2010 at 11:07 am
It’s a huge difference but depends on whether you have insurance and whether they cover midwifery. It will actually be more expensive for me to deliver with a midwife because there aren’t any locally in my insurance network so the insurance company doesn’t pay as big of a percentage. But it’s worth it to me. Her services are about $4,800, which includes all prenatal care, the birth, and all mother/baby checkups through 6 weeks postpartum. I’ve seen midwives be as little as $2,000 and I think mine is definitely at the high end, but she has a good reputation and my insurance does cover about 70%. If you were to pay for a hospital birth out of pocket, you’re looking at a MINIMUM of $10K, and that’s if you go completely natural. More with an epidural or other interventions, and upwards of $30K+ for a c-section since your stay will be longer in addition to the cost of the surgery.
So yeah, overall a hospital birth is several times more than birthing at home with a midwife, but it could end up costing you less if your insurance covers most of a hospital birth but does not cover a homebirth.
April 10th, 2010 at 11:20 am
It’s $3800 for a midwife & that includes all pre-natal care and testing. It ends up being about $7000 with a regular doctor and hospital.