The time has come for me to transition into the beautiful chapter of motherhood. I am sooo excited and incredibly grateful. My husband and I (along with countless family, friends, and strangers) have prayed for this little one.
Now that we are expecting, I wanted to talk about some of the things that I am doing to prepare for baby. There are a ton of blog posts on the internet that have tons of details and tips but I couldn’t find the exact information I was looking for in regards to how to financially prepare for the months leading up to birth, the actual birth, and postpartum care regarding those first three to four months.
I typically write down all my notes in a journal or notebook, but I wanted to create a hub for this journey that I can easily go back to reference for future pregnancies. Plus, I have had a friend inquire about what I am doing in my pregnancy because she knows that I am an overall detailed person and feels that what I am doing and the route I am taking will be what she is looking to do when that time comes for her.
Pregnancy and Birth
I always knew early on that when we began to welcome babies in our lives, I would want to have a home birth. I would want a doula or midwife and as little medical intervention as possible. However, my husband was not that familiar with homebirth and to make us both comfortable, I wanted a solution that was a hybrid one.
I wasn’t sure how I was honestly going to find that because the doula I had my eyes set on years prior did not have that all-inclusive setup though I am sure the information could have been provided on where to go to get our checkups and stuff of that nature. When I reached out to her about my pregnancy her schedule was packed around the weeks surrounding my due date. While the date she mentioned may have still worked, I did not want to wreak havoc on her plans and I did not want to have to settle for a different doula to do the birth if the baby did not arrive on the time frame that was needed. You know, because sometimes they come early or like to bake a little longer.
As the Lord would have it, we found a great alternative that gave me what I wanted but still allowed us to have those appointments, checkups, and things – but with a lower medical intervention compared to someone who would go see a doctor. We ended up with midwives who had trained and worked as Labor & Delivery nurses, as doulas and had a range of certifications and births under their belt. I was thrilled!!!
The financial cost of pregnancy care, homebirth, and postpartum care
The midwives that I went with were able to provide prenatal care, homebirth, and postpartum care for one set price. I felt like my dreams came true! We knew right away how much it would cost to attend all our appointments, bring our beautiful, healthy, and happy baby into this world, and postpartum care from the midwives afterward. In all, it cost us $6,400. I can’t say enough how thrilled I am with that number. While you can usually get doulas for less than $2,000 – as I stated before, we needed a hybrid solution that did offer a bit of medical, and this was perfect for my husband and I. Quick update: We were also advised to get a doula. This added on another $1,200.
Easy math: $6,400 (midwife care) + $1,200 (doula) = $7,600 homebirth
Figuring out how to pay for our homebirth
While we have insurance that we can use, it unfortunately does not work with our birthing plans. The midwives we go to do not accept insurance. They offer payment plans and third-party financing options, plus they let us know that after the birth they can give us a form to submit to our insurance to see if they will reimburse us. Personally, that was not a deal breaker for me. Like I said, it has been my dream to give birth to my babies at home and I knew that we would have the money.
Like any other person, I immediately went looking for money. Let me tell you a quick story.
Would you know, a week or two before we found out we were pregnant my husband was going on about an old HSA he had at a previous company and how he needed to reach out and get a replacement card because the old one expired. He knew there was money on it but wasn’t sure how much. Turns out, there was $3,334.11 in the HSA account. We ordered the cards and got them within a week. We thought we would use them for the chiropractor, dentist, and things like that in the future, but little did we know 😊
I did a quick search to see if HSA money could be used for pregnancy-related expenses…. turns out it can! Of course, I double-checked with the midwives and the HSA company to make sure it was. Let me tell you, God is good!! The money we needed to come up with for the birth was reduced to less than half and the number felt much more comfortable for us to save up for. I was beyond happy!!
A few months later, my husband was awarded a $1,000 gift card from work for a drawing he entered. We applied that entire amount to our bill. When you put your intentions out there, God opens doors and the money shows up in the most miraculous ways.
The math looks like this:
$7,600 (midwife & doula) – $3,334.11 (HSA) – $1,000 (gift card) – $350 (cash gift via uncle) = $2,915.89
I think it is also worth mentioning that we plan on taking pregnancy-related classes such as birthing, breastfeeding, etc. In my area, I can take 6 for around $350. Factor in this additional cost if you plan on taking them too. You can usually attend free ones at your local hospital if you go that route. Personally, we are planning to do all we can so we will be attending the free ones as well.
Costs for staying home the first few months after birth
It seems like so many people get excited about the things they are going to buy, baby showers, and gender reveals that they don’t think about the cost of what it takes to stay home after the baby comes earthside. Of course, it can be different for everyone regarding what they want and what they can honestly do in their lives but I want to offer up what we thought about and planned regarding this period.
I wanted to have the hubby home fully after the baby arrived. I didn’t want him to have the stress of lack of sleep and trying to juggle a full-time job in the first few months while we adjust to life with baby. I’ve heard, feedings are every 2 to 3 hours in the early weeks/months. Trust me, if I am up then he will be up. I honestly felt like we would both need time to adjust to our new lives and it would be much easier if we had that time dedicated to our expanded family.
It was important for us to understand what was available to us, how that would look, and what costs we would need to keep in mind so that we could put in a plan of action to prepare for the outcome we wanted.
FMLA, time off, paid or unpaid parental leave after baby’s birth
We had two questions to address. How could we have time home once the baby arrived and how could we comfortably do so without stressing about money? I run a business that requires me to work at a physical location during the week and decided that in the 8th month of pregnancy, I would hire someone to do the work.
Hubby has an employer, so we had to get familiar with his benefits regarding the birth of a baby. Just make sure you contact HR and determine if you qualify for anything such as FMLA, paid parental leave, or how to use PTO time to fill in the blanks if needed.
A friend also pointed out that we should save some days to take the baby to appointments in the following weeks and months. This can depend on your job if you can break up your leave throughout the year or if you are required to take it all consecutively.
Armed with all this information we knew the basis and could begin to flesh out the first three to four months after birth.
Covering expenses during leave
The best thing to do here is to couple your paid leave and access any gaps that are not paid and plan accordingly. This obviously depends on your situation but if you can start saving to cover the expenses (while reducing any unnecessary expenses at the same time) for the weeks you will not receive pay that will take a load off.
I canceled a few subscriptions, lowered our weekly food budget, and did what I could to add more cash to our savings. Honestly, we are far from perfect in this area but we have been doing what we can to pad our savings.
Conclusion
These are a few things that we discussed early on because while the excitement around having a baby is high, we also wanted to make sure that we could enjoy the time with our little one without any financial stress or surprises. I am so happy that we did because pregnancy brings on so many changes (physically, mentally, and emotionally) that it’s better to have a plan for everything and learn to pivot if you are faced with things that don’t go according to plan. Trust me, that is easier said than done. I feel so relieved going into meeting our little one knowing that we have done our best to prepare as much as possible.
Update: We are expecting twins!!! Our plans have changed now that we have been blessed with two beautiful babies. We had to get a regular doctor/OB and our midwives will be doing alongside care. It took some time for me to truly settle with this (not that I had an option) but ultimately, the most important thing is the health of me and the babies. We were able to find a great doctor to move forward with. Thankfully our insurance does cover this. Since we are not birthing with the midwives, alongside care with them costs $4,000. The math now looks like this: $4,000 (midwife alongside care) + $1,200 (doula) = $5,200 total.