Hacker News Reader

Comment by jvagner | Hacker News Reader

When my son was born, I paid $5K to a birthing center in Boise, a couple of blocks from the hospital.

We visited frequently over the 9 months, and each time stayed for about 4-5 days in a birthing room with a hot tub. Also true after my son was born. And then for a few return visits for checkups. And then for a return visit just to visit Boise and hang-out and chill with other parents, expecting parents, etc.

$5K, all inclusive. Just like Club Med (been to the one in Cancun... lovely vacation spot).

I had insurance... if anything would've happened, an ambulance would've picked us up and taken us to the hospital and then insurance coverage would've kicked in.

View on HN

That is all fine and well until it isn't. I know of a couple who had their baby die on the short trip to the hospital because the "midwives" lacked even basic pediatric emergency care skills.

Yes, it’s worth evaluating preparedness anywhere a birth will be happening.

It’s probably easier to improve training and inexpensive emergency equipment at a birthing center than for a hospital to significantly decrease its cost. If high cost affects quality of healthcare provided, it might be better to fix birthing center edge cases than to avoid them.

Yes - I’ve had five kids. The sum total cost was less than the claim in the title of this article.

Everyone's experience varies. Our first kid cost [our insurance] $100k - he spent 18 days in the NICU.

Starting when and over what period of time? Costs are increasing very very rapidly.

That's not an general option that will have good societal outcomes, if you apply the categorical imperative. The US would rocket ahead from its current lead in infant mortality.

To be clear, the US has obscene levels of infant mortality overall. But many states are significantly worse than the national average.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2014/09/29/our-i...

Shocking.

“ Digging deeper into these numbers, Oster and her colleagues found that the higher U.S. mortality rates are due "entirely, or almost entirely, to high mortality among less advantaged groups." To put it bluntly, babies born to poor moms in the U.S. are significantly more likely to die in their first year than babies born to wealthier moms. ”

Interesting that the Czech republic are in 5th place. They definitely don't spend $32k per birth.

Nearly 1% of children born in Mississippi die in the first year. Insane!

> We visited frequently over the 9 months, and each time stayed for about 4-5 days in a birthing room with a hot tub

It seems rather odd to me to stay at a birthing centre for any other time than labour and birth..?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com