How much do midwives generally charge for their services? My husband and I both have jobs with crummy insurance (What? In the United States? Shocker), and I’m a little worried about the cost of birthing a baby in a hospital. Do midwives offer payment plans, like I’m currently making on my couch? -Eliza
Midwives, especially when they offer home-births, are about half or even a third of the cost of a doctor-hospital birth option. Birth Center births are more expensive than home birth because of the cost of outfitting and running the center, but generally less than hospital stay.
The cost of the midwives services are generally lower than a physician, depending on the place, educational background and context for the midwifery practice. I’m sure some midwives do payment plans, especially since pregnancy itself is a 9 month process. You might want to read about this Seattle couple who are working out a payment plan with their midwife.
But these are generalizations; you’ll need to shop around and see what your local options are. GOOD LUCK!
If you’ve got a non-medical question to Ask the Midwife, you can click here to email Therese. She’ll select a question every couple weeks to answer on the site. Remember, if you’ve got medical questions, you need to contact your care provider!
I am in Boulder, CO and the home birth midwives I interviewed were between $3000 and $3400. I ended up going with a midwife with 14 years experience who provides all the prenatal care minus any specialized tests, birth assistance, and post-partum care for $3200. My insurance does not cover her in-network so I will pay 30% of the cost. She also has a biller that works with insurance so I will see if her biller pre-approves my insurance so that I will only pay that 30% vs. paying it all by 36 weeks and waiting for a discount. I will also pay $275 to attend birth classes led my my midwife and about $70 in supplies to have at home for the birth.
My midwife is charging me $2,600 total for all prenatal and postnatal care and the entire cost of the birth. I have to pay and extra $100 for the home birth kit and another $100 for the birthing pool, so all together it is $2,800.
We planned a homebirth with a midwife. It was $4,500 for all our in-home prenatal visits, her time from early labor through three hours after babe arrived, and then seven in-home post-partum visits.
We ended up with a hospital c-section. It was $85,000 (before insurance) for the five night stay, anesthesiology, OBs, and nursing support. I think we ended up paying about $1,700 after insurance.
Does anyone know a good midwife near Monterey CA who will do a homebirth? I am moving cross country in my 6th month (FEB)and will have most of the tests and such covered by insurance and am looking for care for just the last trimester and delivery.
Here in Oregon you could have a free birth if you wanted to. First of all, in every Oregon hospital it is required that we give you the same care as we would a paying patient.If you come in to have a baby you will receive the same services and care as the paying patient. If you qualify for Oregon health plan than it is partially covered and the hospital usually “eats” the rest of the costs. I am a labor and lactation nurse in Oregon. So some members of our state end up with free health care. No one goes uncared for.
Socialized healthcare is not free. We pay for it with higher taxes and we are unable to choose what our taxes are spent on.