Seriously? You need to do a little bit of research on the cost of childbirth in the US before making ridiculous comments like that.

If you’re SO concerned with how “your tax dollars” are being spent, maybe you should lobby your state reps to make out of hospital births more attainable to low income families and women on medicaid. In fact, maybe you should lobby your reps to make out of hospital birth more attainable to ALL women. That would save BILLIONS of “your tax dollars”.

The average cost of a hospital birth (not including the hospital stay or prenatal care), for a vaginal delivery is anywhere from $5,000 – $20,000. Keep in mind, all of the interventions (pitocin, epidural, even episiotomy) cost money, and that doesn’t even include the cost of a c-section, or the cost to care for the dramatically growing number of iatrogenic premature babies. That means babies that suffer from being premmies because the Dr couldn’t let the baby come when it was ready, but had to induce or cut a whole month before baby was ready, ie, “your baby looks like it will be a big one, I think we should induce you at 38 weeks.” and said baby comes out at 4.5lbs, and with breathing problems, spending 2 weeks in the NICU.

If you consider that the average cost of a midwife for a homebirth (in my area at least) is between $2,800 – $3,500, and that includes ALL prenatal care (unless the patient needs to be seen for additional testing), the birth, and postpartum visits, SC alone would likely save anywhere from 1 to 5 million $ a year if there were more birth centers, and there was more access to midwives and if medicaid actually paid the midwives their entire fee.

In my case, I have to go out of pocket by almost 1000$ because of what medicaid doesn’t pay, and just a refresher, when you’re on medicaid, it’s likely because you’re BROKE. So, I have been doing everything I can to cut back on expenses to save up for this, but I still don’t know if we will be able to afford it.

Now, for the moms who can’t afford it, and do hire a doula (doula costs vary widely, but are usually between $500-$1000), ESPECIALLY moms who are receiving their healthcare on “your dime” according to you, they are statistically less likely to receive these costly interventions, and therefore more likely to save medicaid money. See how that works genius?

And before making a bonehead comment about “your tax dollars”, when it comes to medicaid and low income families, remember, YOU and YOUR kids could very easily end up on medicaid at any moment because of the current economy, and that “your tax dollars” pay for a HECK of a lot more than just me to give birth. Before making rude and completely unnecessary comments, why don’t you ask your county and state what percentage of your taxes actually pays for low income families to have health care. That is the ONLY government help we receive too, so keep that in mind!