Project Pollywog: 32 Weeks, 2 Days

[eniarelocin]

The Cost of Having A Baby

We had our 32 Week Midwife appointment this morning. Despite a rocky start in getting there and me walking part of the way post tantrum, I think the fact that it turned out well is proof positive that Darlene really works for us.

The big question was whether or not we can stay with her. We found out that what it's going to cost us to stay there:
Facility Fee: $2,000 normally but she'll only charge us $1,000 given the situation if we decide to birth at the birthing center.
Professional Fee: $3,000 normally but she'll knock it down to $2,500, or if we pay it by 36 weeks (one month from now) she'll reduce it further to $2,000.

If we choose to have a home birth, there is no facility fee and the grand total should be $2,000 if we can pay her this month. She's cutting it in half for us, basically.

Needless to say, we're strongly considering a home birth.

Cons of Home Birth:

• No birthing tub. I've been really looking forward to that, but since Stephen has refused to go in it with me, I guess it wouldn't ever have met my expectations anyway.


• A little further from a hospital, and namely another 15 miles away from the better ones in Seattle- in the event that we need one. This is more Stephen's concern than mine due to the fact that we've been told that everyone who gets transferred is done so with plenty of time so it shouldn't be a big deal.


• Cats.


• Cleanliness. I like the idea that I'm going to a place that is super clean and homey when we get there. Needless to say the house should be clean anyway but I'm not convinced that it will ever been clean enough. Of course, the baby is going to be in the house no matter what so I guess it's just going to have to work.


• Potentially more work for Mom because I'll probably feel better knowing she's here helping out.

Pros of Home Birth:

• Everyone comes to me. There is no getting in the car once active labour hits. I just stay home and wait for the midwife. This also means no packing everything up to get back into the car to come home. We're just here!


• Cost.


• Mom gets to help out. This may cancel out the Con and it may not. We've been struggling with deciding who to have around and who not to- mainly with the idea that it be no one. But I think I'd like to have Mom involved and I feel like I'd some how be cheating her out of it if she weren't.


• Comforts. While I don't generally think of the house as a place of calm and comfort for me, there are a lot of things here that may potentially keep me distracted or occupied. And envisioning wandering around the house while in labour, I imagine coming into this room and looking at the baby stuff. This, I believe, could equate to some serious positive reinforcement.


• Bragging rights. Not only is this ultra hippie, but actually something I would feel accomplished in doing. This is an ultimate triumph in natural child birth and I love that. This allows me to overcome one of the fears that society drives into all of us women: we need people and some special facility to do this, when in reality it's a very natural process and more of than not it is those very facilities and medical help that interfere and cause problems. I don't believe that the birthing center would cause problems, but I've always had a slight bit of extra fear associated with being at home and I think it's unfounded and conquerable.


• Comfort for baby. I don't know that there is any real grounding in this one, but I somehow imagine it being comfier and less traumatic for baby be born in a place with familiar sounds and be spared the pack-up and get in the car experience on the first day. It seems nice to save that for day 2 or 3 when we go to see Dr. Mark in Kirkland.


• Access to my food. Albeit, the stairs may get in the way and I may be asking people to fetch things for me, but that would certainly be less of a pain that sending out to the co-op (assuming they would even be open since labour usually happens at night).


• Probably a lot more than that...

The bottom line here is that we do not want to change care providers. I'm sure you're wondering, and YES I did call our new insurance provider. They will not reimburse us a penny and they actually told me that they wouldn't have covered the delivery by a midwife anyway... though I didn't get full details on that bit. Regardless, we had a hard time finding someone we were really comfortable with and I don't want to start that all over again so late in the game. I feel like we'd be potentially compromising my health and that of the baby just to save the 80% or whatever the insurance covers (and even some of that is questionable at this point). It's just not worth it to me. We'll figure it out.

I'd rather work harder to make it work than compromise on this one. I'm just not comfortable with that and the last thing I want is added anxiety, which equals added risk. I guess this is where all those parenting choices come into play, huh? We want what's best for the baby. This is what we think is best. So here we are. We need $2,000.

So... other things:
My suspicions about the baby's positioning are correct/confirmed by the midwife. The baby is head down, and I think facing left (me left). I've thought so for a couple of weeks now. I fan feel little refined movements down low, and that's where interest in things seems to be the most received. Higher up is the little tooshie and legs. Stephen thought he felt a foot the other day. I think I've been feeling foot sized pushing- especially when part of my clothing is tight across me. Either way, blunt force pushing with more disperse pressure at the top (where I'm also bigger) and more refine movements down low.

Smart baby being in generally the right position already. Ideally it will spin around and face my spine for labor and birth. But in the meantime, I'm sure all the good stuff and interesting things are in the outward direction. We put the glow worm on my tummy at night last night and the night before. The baby responds very quickly to the light and sounds made by the glow worm. I put the glow worm face down as well, right next to where the head of Thumper should be- and wouldn't you know, little hands try to reach out for it and poke it. Smart little baby.

Grandma Chuck (Charlotte, Stephen's mother) asked me the other day if I thought it would be a screamer and I very confidently said no. I think this baby will be curious and playful. I sure hope so, anyway. But that is the impression that I get from spending time with it and observing its reactions to outside, and inside stimuli.

The little nipper made me burp last night. My stomach gurgled, it kicked me in stomach and made me burp. This kid already knows all the buttons and how to push them. While I admire its cleverness, I think we're going to be in big trouble. And that makes me smile.

Mom is going to Canada to pick up our Quinny Zapp tonight. I may go with her, or I may go to the Clutch show with Stephen... dunno yet.

More about La Leche League meeting later.

P.S. Nose bleeds suck and I'd like to be done with them now... and Pickle likes bubbles. Silly goldfish.

Comments

I can see the headline now...

[edduhduh.livejournal.com]

Mom decides to have home delivery, but winds up having the baby at a Cure concert instead. Robert Smith makes the baby an honorary member of the band.

Re: I can see the headline now...

[ebonyraine.livejournal.com]

That would be so awesome.

[warlockuk.livejournal.com]

Go for ultimate bragging rights: have it in a cab.

Better yet, find a trainee doctor who drives a cab to make money for med school :D

[ebonyraine.livejournal.com]

Oh we so live in the wrong part of the world for that! It would probably cost us just as much to keep us near or in a cab long enough to make sure it happened.

We no live in city.

[warlockuk.livejournal.com]

How about in a speaker-cab? :D

[ebonyraine.livejournal.com]

Now there's an idea...

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

I really wanted a homebirth with my daughter but she came a day too early by the hospital records (not by her records though!) so they told me I had to go to hospital :-(

You can buy or rent inflatable birthing pools if that appeals at all? I was going to immediately after my "home suitability" midwife appointment, but somebody decided I was going to suddenly go into labour 15 minutes before that appointment. Guess I saved some money anyway..

Sounds like you have all the right reasons for wanting to do a homebirth (not just cost) and you've clearly done your research! I bet it'll turn out great and I look forward to reading about it - homebirths often make the best birth stories! :-)

[ebonyraine.livejournal.com]

We did talk about the possibility of renting a birthing tub or doing something more make shift. I haven't researched it in months, so right I think we're focusing on just paying for the birth at all... and then if we can afford anything like that, we'll see what we can do. It isn't totally out the window, but my birthing instructor also advised that it is the biggest mess we will have to clean up ourselves if we choose to bring on into the house.

We still have about $550 (car seat and breast pump being the two big expenses) in baby kit to collect in the next two months as well and I believe those are likely to supersede the need for a birthing pool.

I've been spending time trying to envision this within our home- which helps me decide what I expect and want... maybe what I'd like to do. I know I wouldn't be trying to sit in our tiny little bath tub, but I can imagine being on all fours in the shower. We also have heating pads a plenty, hot water bottles, and other things that may help- none of them anti gravity devices, mind you.

Basically since we've just begun seriously considering a home birth as of, oh, yesterday, we have a lot of questions to ask of the midwife and research to do. One thing at a time I suppose.

[sparklielizard.livejournal.com]

Heh - it is hard to visualise what you may want when the time comes. Even though I've done a natural labour (well, apart from a bit of gas and air) I still don't know what I'd want. People often get pools and then just not want them at all. The lovely thing about a homebirth is that it's just that - it's your home, you go where you feel comfortable. In the hospital they wouldn't let me move, I was uncomfortable, and stuck on my flipping back with my legs held back. No wonder I had to push for 90 minutes. I think what I really wanted to do was curl up on my own bed in peace and quiet and work something out for myself!

Enjoy doing the research - I loved researching pregnancy and birth things, and even now I love researching baby stuff! :-)

[timly.livejournal.com]

my youngest was born at home. in kentucky, midwifery is not recognized legally anymore. in fact, i believe it's illegal but nobody enforces it. you can't get any insurance help at all.

but our prices were no where near what you're looking at paying. i guess the 'underground' approach means they can't charge as much. if there were more money in it, the state would want their share!

all in all it was an amazing experience for me, and i was just watching and soothing (even got complimented by the midwife for that!). the girls did all the work. my daughter even helped and she wasn't 3 yet.

[ebonyraine.livejournal.com]

in kentucky, midwifery is not recognized legally anymore. in fact, i believe it's illegal but nobody enforces it. you can't get any insurance help at all.

Score one for Kentucky, I guess! Personally, I think that most of the things that OB's do to mothers and babies is down right criminal and should be illegal! But that's another rant entirely.

Here in WA, and from what I've read most other places as well, it's primarily Nurse Midwives that are covered by insurance. The delivery is in a hospital or other "approved" facility, and the Nurse Midwife still pretty much does as she's told by the OB (who is supposed to be present at the birth and ready to jump in at any moment, from my understanding)- so even then you're not really under midwifery care but still under the policies of the hospital. They still can just whisk your baby away and do every other horrible thing that they do routinely. Gah!

Anyhoot... our midwife and her birthing facility were covered just as any other provider would have been through our former insurance (Premera Blue Cross). The new insurance being Regence Blue Shield- who I don't like- is one we've had before. We had them last year and then Stephen's former employer changed its mind again and switched over to Premera, which was nice. I had to find all new providers under Regence, all save my primary care doctor. They didn't cover anyone then either. But then again, it was that big of a deal and I was able to go back to them when we went back to Premera. My prescriptions also cost a hell of a lost more through Regence.

I'm thinking the finger is largely in order with regards to Regence.

This is also the company that told me they only cover "surgical sterilization" when I called to find out what treatments they'll cover for Endometriosis. The girl said it like it was no big deal.
Problem with your uterus? Oh even though there are treatments for it, they don't pay for those. They only pay to have it REMOVED.

How is that care?

Sorry, apparently these things make me uppity.