Our Women’s Hospital is asking me to provide some research on the cost difference between a natural unmedicated birth and the standard medicated/epidural/cesarean births. Does anyone have numbers I can start with? They want to go to the insurance companies and HMOs serving their hospital and “sell” the Hypnobabies classes I already teach there in order to get a wider audience for us – and money always talks to those insurance companies!
Thanks.
By: HypnobabiesNM

Here are some numbers taken from Peggy O'Mara's book Having a Baby Naturally, published in 2003. They are based on data published in 1999.

Total fees:
Home birth: $2300-$5000
Birth center: $3500-$8300
Hospital: $4300-$16,000
Cesarean surgery: $9300-$26,000

-- Henci By: Henci Goer

There is a very recent study that looks at the costs of different methods of birth. The study takes place in Canada which is obviously a different setting than the U.S. in terms of costs and lack of third-party reimbursement (i.e. insurance companies.) But it breaks the costs down by induced labor, spontaneous labor, c-section following labor and c-section without labor. You can see the abstract here.

Good luck,
Amy By: Amy Romano

Interesting study, to bad they dont include the cost of an unmedicated birth. By: RNChrista