Even with medical insurance coverage, delivering your baby in a hospital is the single most expensive health event your family will likely face during your childbearing years.
According to the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, hospital deliveries in the United States cost $3,500 per stay, on average. Add in prenatal and postnatal care as well as delivery-related costs and you are looking at $8,800 in total costs, excluding the child-rearing expenses.
Fortunately, you can slash the costs of hospital stay with the following simple yet effective steps. Be sure to plan for these measures at least a few weeks before your due date.
Skip the Add-ons
Hospitals will obviously charge extra for private rooms. You can significantly cut on your costs by skipping on the privacy and enjoying the company of a new mother in a two-person room. Depending on where you live, you can save anywhere from $30 (Alabama) to $500 (New York) daily charge.
Skip on the television, which the hospital can also charge on a daily basis. Enjoy the time you have with your child while in the hospital where an army of nurses can help in taking care of him/her instead. You can always catch up on your favorite shows at home.
Ask the doctors and nurses for samples and coupons. You will be surprised at the amount of freebies that manufacturers of maternity and baby products lavish on maternity wards.
But you have to get up the courage to ask for these items, which can include tubes of diaper ointment, bags of diapers, and baby wash, perhaps even a black diaper bag, as well as the coupons for milk.
Bring Your Own Supplies
If the hospital allows it, you should bring your own toiletries including diapers, baby wipes, sanitary napkins, toilet paper, soap, and plastic cups, among other small items. You can buy most of these items at a discount from Target, too. Hospitals typically have inflated rates on their items – think $50 for a box of tissues – so bringing your own toiletries to save on costs makes sense.
But if the hospital does not allow it, you can take the freebies that come with the hospitalization package. Be sure to ask for permission to take the goodies, such as swaddling clothes, diapers, disposable nipples, nasal aspirator, and alcohol swabs, among others, which will save you $30 to $40 at the drugstore later on. You can even bring your own medicine with the permission of your obstetrician-gynecologist.
And go the normal delivery route, if you can. The difference between a normal delivery and a caesarean delivery can be $2,500 at least – indeed, a good chunk of change for new parents. Check with your local pharmacy about saving on generics after deliveries at CVS.