I sure hope you had a nice holiday weekend!
We did! We had a wonderful family lunch, attended a football game, and I even found the time and energy to run six miles. And we ended things on a high note – Henry and I were playing upstairs in the TV room, and I swear he became a little boy right before my eyes. We were rolling around on the rug and he was diving on top of a pillow, turning at the sound of his name and watching me tell a story with his dolls. He’s definitely not a newborn anymore! Sniff, sniff.
Cranberry Banana Smoothie
In the blender:
Soy protein powder
Soy milk
Banana
Leftover Crockpot Cranberry Sauce
Peanut Butter
It was tasty, but I wish I had more cranberry sauce. It was just a little hint of the sauce – I wanted the smoothie to be overwhelmed with the sour stuff.
Speaking of bebes, my mom brought me 10 boxes of my middle school and high school memories – she’s cleaning out her attic and giving me back a lot of my stuff. I was the kind of teen who held onto everything… every note, deflated birthday balloons, every important receipt. It’s fun to look through it all (and read the tortured letters to and from ex-boyfriends… oh, the drama).
In addition to the older stuff, I found this receipt from my mom’s hospital stay when she gave birth to me. A drug-free birth in 1984 cost $1,782.45. Adjusted for inflation, that’s about $3,797.36 today. I’m pretty sure this was just the hospital stay and not her pre-birth OB-GYN appointments.
In comparison, the hospital stay for Henry’s drug-free birth cost me about $6,000. No fair.
Have a good one!
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{ 41 comments… read them below or add one }
Cranberry sauce in a smoothie is such a good idea – I think I’d like it even if it was a little sour!!
It was 1964 when they had me and dad was in the Navy in VA. They went to the base hospital and told me it was less than $10.00 for my birth.
Ah, crazy how medical bills have dramatically increased over the years. It’s honestly become a sick cycle of charging higher and higher and the process hasn’t altered that significantly.
Last time my parents cleaned out their “shoeboxes” they found the receipts for my father’s birth. It cost my grandmother a few hundred dollars at the hospital. Crazy! I totally agree it’s not fair!
By the way Henry is just so flippin’ cute!
$6000! Sounds like a steal! I gave birth in California’s Bay Area in September and my drug-free birth (and really, I was only at the hospital before his delivery for about 20 minutes…we barely made it there on time) cost almost $15,000. Seriously. That includes the stay in the hospital afterwards, but even so…it’s pretty outrageous!
May I ask which hospital, so I can avoid it? I live in the Bay Area too.
Curious to know is this out of pocket with insurance or without?
Oh man…I do not have $6000 and I’m due in 4 weeks. Thankfully, my Canadian insurance covers the upcoming birth and all my appointments. Your cranberry smoothie sounds delicious!
My mom kept the receipt for my birth too…$700 with drugs in 1979, which is less than my copay for inpatient stays now!
Yup, my bill will be 0! Love free health care in Canada!
I can’t believe she still has the bill!! Haha you all do keep everything!
Cranberry sauce in smoothies is such a genius idea! I have so much leftover!t
$6,000? $15,000 in California??! Yikes. I hope these are all before insurance amounts! My drug free birth two months ago was a lot less than that…the bill came to $3,900 which included two nights stay at the hospital. But my out of pocket maximum for the year for all medical is $2100 (including all prenatal appts), so I’ll never pay more than that. It would be really interesting to see the difference in the birth costs for various insurances and states…
Nice out of pocket price
Yes, thankfully, that $15,000 was the itemized cost. We didn’t pay anything personally because I have two different sets of health insurance. Thankfully!
Glad you had a great holiday weekend! We just got the itemized bill for our 2nd daughter…$7,400!! Just for the delivery, and that was a little more expensive because it was a Vbac. It’s crazy the cost of medical care. The night in the hospital, we only stayed 24 hours was $320. I wonder when will the high costs ever stop.
That is so expensive! Whenever I hear stuff like that, I’m so glad I live in Canada!
That picture of Henry is so cute.
My parents paid out of pocket for my natural birth (they tried for a home birth but had to transfer to the hospital) back in 1980, and it was around $300. They had an awesome doc who let them pay $30 in advance each prenatal visit (they were poor grad students at the time), so it was paid off before I was born.
And I can’t IMAGINE paying 6 grand out of pocket! With our insurance, my total cost, including all prenatal visits, hospital bill, etc. was around $500. It’s one benefit of a government job – great health insurance! I would never choose to be self-employed solely for that reason – my parents are self-employed, and they spend 5 figures a year for the crappiest, cheapest health insurance available (super high deductibles, very few things covered, etc.) and they have no health issues at all – it’s just based on their age (lower 60s).
Henry is growing up so quick! I too loved to hld on to notes, test papers etc as a teen. Now I tend to hold on to sentimental things, but toss extra papers etc…too much clutter gives me a headache!
I’m happy to live in a country where health insurance is an acquired right, for every citizen. USA really need a universal health care…
It would be fun for you to maybe do a post about free healthcare. I saw several Canadians post that they love their healthcare system … it would just be interesting to do a comparison? (Maybe I’m the only one interested.)
Hi there,
I’m a Canadian, and I’m sorry to rain on the parade but our health care is not free – we pay for it with taxes! So rather than paying per visit or per procedure, you pay income tax – some of which goes to health care – and you pay sales taxes on all purchases except basic groceries, books, and kids clothing. All things considered I think our taxes are very reasonable (and I’d love to know how they compare to American taxes), but it drives me crazy when it’s framed as ‘free’.
I love – love love love – that our coverage is universal (everyone pays the same whether they’re old or young, sick or healthy – everyone needs it at some point) and that no one is denied coverage. I think that we have some of the best medical facilities in the world, and I’ve always felt exceptionally well-treated by everyone in the system. I’m not trashing our (wonderful) system; we’re crazy lucky. I just want to point out that it’s not actually free.
Seconded. I love our healthcare system, and I try to keep that in mind when I’m looking at receipts going “holy EFF, tax sucks”. Because it doesn’t really suck. It means my prescriptions are $5 instead of several hundred. But yes indeed, not ‘free’.
the price of medical goods and services has increased much more rapidly than other services, so its not really accurate to use a generic inflation rate to compare the two (although…maybe that is the point you were trying to make?). you’d also need to compare your insurance coverage, lengths of stay, etc. etc.
Hospital bills are outrageous. My unmedicated, no-IV. no nursery care, or anything birth came to $11k. Luckily I have awesome insurance so out of pocket we only paid $250.
That’s amazing!! What a fun thing to find!
I knew Americans had to pay for healthcare, but I had no idea it was this expensive! I am so thankful I am English, and will never again complain about £7.50 prescriptions.
Hi Caitlin: I see you eat a lot of soy products and was wondering if this is okay for a healthy diet? My natural health doctor advised I avoid soy like the plague while pregnant, and otherwise to only eat it occasionally if it’s a dish I just love, for example stir fry veggies with tofu. I have read that 90% of the soy in the U.S. is GMO and not healthy. Here’s an article about soy proteins that maybe you would like/add to your research about soy products. http://www.naturalnews.com/025513_soy_food_soybeans.html What do you think about consuming soy as part of a healthy diet? I am too afraid to eat it regularly! My sis had breast cancer at 38, so I get nervous about this stuff! I used to be a vegetarian and consume all sorts of soy-related meat replacements, but I’m not so sure we were meant to eat this way – doesn’t seem natural now that I do consume local grass-fed meats and raw milk products.
I am not sure how this comment was prompted by this thread but have been thinking about this subject a lot lately as well. I have done some research on the subject but I am interested to know what other people think.
Just saw the ingredients in the smoothie
I loooooove kale smoothies for breakfast with my grass-fed whey protein powder and banana, so I always enjoy getting/reading about new smoothie recipes to mix it up.
I had absolutely no idea it was that expensive. It’s times like this that I am happy I live in the UK! Woop woop!!!
It amazes me that people in the USA pay to give birth. It just seems so crazy.
I spent 90 days in the hospital, so our bills were significantly higher than that, heh. I’m not sure exactly what they charged us (I’ve never really asked), but I think insurance or something covered a good chunk of it.
Your son looks so uncannily like your husband!
I think a better comparison is what you paid out of pocket v. your parents. They paid $200, or about 10%. I’ve never had a kid, so I don’t know if most people here pay more or less than 10% of the bill.
i paid $10,000 out of pocket in total. yaaaaay horrible insurance!
Wow! I guess there’s one thing in favor of working for a bigger company (or you know that whole idea of health care as a basic human right, which seems to be very slowly catching on here…).
I called the hospital. If we have a normal birth, it would be about $10,000 (plus a pediatrician’s fees). Our out of pocket maximum is $5,000 but it would be nice to pay less than that!
I wish I had saved more of my childhood memories! I remember in high school getting irritated with how much stuff I had been holding onto and threw away a ton of old notes. I wish I could reread those now!
6,000$ !??! Here in Germany one day in a hospital costs maybe 15 euros! i am really shocked. i knew there are different health care systems (like health insurance and so) in europe and the usa, but differences likes that?? Crazy
That’s why i love living in the UK… my wonderful, long birth cost me £0! I couldn’t fault the NHS when i gave birth, i almost felt like i was at a private hospital the way i was treated. It’s very interesting though to see how things have changed in the US over the years.
This is insane! I live in New Zealand and healthcare is free, or, I guess the same as canadians, we pay for it with our taxes – Our income tax is around 30% depending on your income, plus we pay 15% tax on ALL purchases, regardless of what it is – it’s just included in the price usually, the prices we see at the supermarket are tax inclusive, and the supermarkets (or wherever) pay that tax for us. So we get taxed 30% on money coming in, then another 15% on money going out. That seems silly, but I assumed it was like this in America and most other countries! Haha
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