second OB visit

mande

Today was the second OB visit. She was totally unconcerned that I had declined the early ultrasound. Didn’t bat an eye. I said I had decided against it since it was for dating purposes only and I had good dates anyway. She was all, “Oh, yeah, that’s totally fine, no problem. Still on for the 20 week scan though, right?” To which I concurred. She’s very chill.

But guys, guys! Why didn’t anyone tell me hospital births were so expensive?!? (Ok you probably told me.) Our insurance covers 80% and we are still looking at like $1500 out of pocket. Holy cow. And that’s an uncomplicated vaginal delivery. That’s like, the minimum. And doesn’t cover labs or ultrasounds. I’m not sure about making it to the next visit, let alone the 20 week scan. That’s an awful lot of money for a contingency plan. But then, it can be pretty scary to give birth in a hospital with no documented prenatal care, which is how homebirth transfers are seen here. I did it once (Gloria) and we lucked out. We got to the hospital, she was born less than a minute after I got to triage and then we left before it could go pear-shaped. I hear horror stories about parents getting tangled up with social services for refusal to submit to hospital procedure.

I don’t know. I’ll sit on it for a while.

But the baby’s heart beat was audible, yay! Pew pew pew. He was 146 bpm. Still kinda getting used to that “he” stuff. I may have bought a few tiny things for him already…

5 thoughts on “second OB visit

  1. I’m glad that it went well. You should probably budget for double that number- just in case. Everything adds up quickly once you are in the hospital

  2. Check your per person catastrophic limit. Ours has consistently been around $1,500 and we hit that most times. On the other hand, you get free medical care for the rest of the year.

    1. I can’t tell what’s really going on, but it looks like max out of pocket is $4K for maternity benefits, but also my deductible is $1K. I am confuse. I think that means I pay a thousand bucks and after that I pay 20% of every bill, up to $4K.

      1. That is correct; your deductible first, then your 20% up to your max out of pocket.

        Plus, at least on my plan, copays do not count toward your max out of pocket.

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