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I am amazed that no one yet has mentioned the high cost of maternity care. American women (or their insurance companies) pay more for birth and prenatal care than anyone else in the world, and yet we have some of the worst birth outcomes (infant and maternal mortality, illness, and complications) of developed nations.

I gave birth last year, and my insurance company paid for about half of the cost of my planned homebirth, which was $2000 total, including excellent prenatal care with two experienced midwives. A friend with the same insurance plan recently had a hospital birth that ended in cesaerean (like about 1/3 of U.S. women), costing over $30,000. She paid her deductible, and nothing more. Why are insurance companies paying less, or declining to pay at all, for homebirths, which are vastly cheaper and statistically have as good or better outcomes as hospital births?

In addition, most health insurance companies do not pay for doula support (trained labor coach) for laboring women although doulas have also been shown to statistically improve outcomes and experiences for moms and families. (Disclosure - I am a doula)

Reducing the cost of maternity care could make a difference in health insurance rates. I believe that we can reduce the cost and at the same time increase the quality and outcomes of maternity care. OPB, please help bring this idea into the health care debate!

posted 3 years, 3 months ago
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Wow, I was shocked by the comments I heard in this program. As a mother to a 7-month-old, I have not noticed any "privileges" being bestowed on me because of my status as a parent. In fact, I find myself somewhat more limited in my choices of activities - for instance, I can't bring my daughter to a No Minors Allowed location to participate in the weekly trivia games. This is just a pretty unimportant example, but in general I think that our society is set up in such a way that is fairly unfriendly to families. Maybe this is because I am a new parent and haven't yet discovered all the family-friendly venues, activities, and restaurants, but so far I've felt more restricted than privileged. Someone please enlighten me, what are these privileges that I'm missing?

*I didn't hear the whole program so sorry if this was discussed in much more detail. I will listen to it now.

posted 3 years, 8 months ago
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