How we had a baby and it only cost $44.50
You may have to forgive me if I am a little sleep deprived. My wife and I just had a brand new baby five days ago and our household is still adjusting to our new girl.
Along with the journey of having a newborn I am reminded of all the things that you learn along the way. We already have a four and a half year old girl so some of this is familiar territory. However I think that I may have forgotten more than I have remembered in the last four and a half years.
One of the things that I had completely forgotten, or perhaps just took for granted is exactly how cheap it is to have a baby in Australia. That is not to say that the care is not incredible. In our situation we went to our local hospital at one in the morning when my wife started having contractions. We were in our own private birthing suite by 1.30am and my wife was in bed and things were getting serious with the birth by 2am. Three hours later our new, gorgeous daughter “Daphne” came out safe and sound.
We were attended by a midwife who was amazing through the entire birth, as well as the birthing suite midwife and two doctors popping in multiple times to ensure that everything was going smoothly and safely.
As it happened my wife had a natural birth but needed a couple of stitches from where the baby had come out. After the baby was born, Daphne was given some vaccination injections to help prevent blood clots due to having Covid while pregnant.
My wife stayed in the hospital that day as well as overnight for observation. She was released around lunchtime the following day. This seemed to be the standard of care at the hospital even though she had to share the room with one other mum. During that time she was seen by multiple doctors, midwives and specialists who measured, vaccinated and fed the baby and mum. In total she had a couple of lunches, dinner and two breakfasts, as well as a few snacks in between. She had her own bed and all the amenities of a hotel, sharing the bathroom with the other mum.
While not a fancy hotel by any stretch of the imagination, she was very well taken care of. The quality of the food was excellent, even though eating was not high on the agenda after the delivery. The nurses were amazing and attended to her every need.
We don’t have private health care and so all of this was offered to us through the Australian Healthcare system, at no cost to us. It would have cost us no more if my wife had needed a “C-Section” while delivering.
So where did the $44.50 come from? As we were leaving my wife was informed that she would need a daily injection to protect her from any blood clot complications that may have arrived from having COVID during pregnancy. Rather than coming back each day for her daily injection the hospital pharmacy gave us 13 disposable and prefilled syringes that we could self administer over the next two weeks. One was given at the hospital so that we could see how it was done safely.
Upon returning home I saw that we had been charged for this as it was not something done at the hospital. $44.50 in total.
That is it, in a nutshell. A great deal of professional care, more than ten doctors, midwives and nurses, food, medication room and so much more for next to nothing. It was really humbling to realise the level of care that we got as regular citizens and it reminded me just how fortunate we are here in Australia.
Curious, I took a little look at how much it costs in other countries to give birth and I was somewhat horrified,
In the US the average birth costs $10,800. It is a pay for what you use, so if you request an epidural for the pain that will be tacked on to the final price.
Canada averages out at $3,195.
In the Philippines, it is around $2,100;
Thailand is around the $2000 mark.
Mexico is much more fairly priced at around $600.
China is one of the most expensive countries, starting at around $12,000 per birth.
The United Kingdom is around $2,300.
These prices are in US dollars and are for a standard delivery. Of course not everyone would pay these prices as in a lot of the above countries births are not always in hospitals due to prohibitive costs. I am very glad to live in a country that still priorities healthcare and looks after my family as well as it did.
We could have paid for Private Healthcare and it would have cost us around $2,500, but that is for all of our healthcare needs and is spread over a full year. In saying that, the only real benefit of this would have been my wife would not have had to share a room with one other mother for the night and day that she recovered. Hardly a big inconvenience given the large size of the room and the privacy that she was afforded with the curtains that divided the room in two. We actually never even saw the other mum that she was sharing the room with for over two days.
So now as we settle into the new sleep routine, we are happy not to worry about a big bill from the health care system. As you can see from the photo above, it is the best $44.50 that we have ever spent.
Stephen Lewis
Brisbane, Australia 2023
Family Adventure Channel 