Maternity and Postpartum in the US

Added: 2026-05-07

[00:00:00]Let's talk about how expensive it is to have a baby in the US while I get ready for work. I am currently 35 and a half weeks pregnant. First of all, if you're going to have a baby in the US, it is very expensive. Even if you have insurance, for example, because of our deductible, our insurance actually hasn't covered anything up until now.

[00:00:20]So, we have been paying fully out of pocket for all of my prenatal appointments and my pregnancy is high risk. So that is extra appointments that we have had to go through, extra ultrasounds. Now that we have met our deductible, our insurance is starting to cover 80% of all of the rest of our appointments, including our delivery and hospital stay. But they're still not covering 100% of any of our visits, hospital stay, or anything like that, until we meet our out-ofpocket maximum of $6,000. We've already had to pay $3,400. Let's talk about postpartum care really quick because that is what this message is pertaining to. No, we do not receive any type of like extra postpartum care. The only postpartum care that we get is directly after we have the baby and we're in the hospital.

[00:01:12]We will be monitored for a couple of days and then sent home. After that, we have a either 6 week or 8 week checkup with our OB and that's that. From there, the checkups at our OB at that 6 to 8 week mark is very quick. It's not thorough and no one checks on us in between that time. Considering the rates for postpartum depression, anxiety, rage, and psychosis, you would think that they would do more. Now, let's talk about maternity leave. Maternity leave varies from job to job. So, for example, at my job, I don't actually get any time off. In the US, not only is it very expensive to give birth moneywise, but it is very expensive time-wise. Let me explain that. You are now forced to choose between very precious time of this new life that you have just pushed out of your body who hasn't even had time to decipher that they are out of your body yet. They think that they're still one with you or paying the bills.

[00:02:07]Anytime that you take off for your maternity leave and recovery is on you.

[00:02:12]Whether that's you use your vacation pay, your sick time, your PTO, or you take no pay at all like I'm doing. You then have to decide when you're going back. If and when you decide you're going back to work, then comes into play child care. So, if you've decided that you are going back to work, you now have to decide which bills you are not going to be able to pay because you have to pay for child care. So, that means either you or your partner, if you have one, has to decide who is working either more hours or another job. Just to put it into perspective for you guys, I have my own photography business. I opened a farm stand out in front of my house last year for some extra income. I work as a home life aid for my little sister who has special needs. It is really cool that my state still allows for family members to get paid to care for their special needs family members, but they have this year put very strict restrictions on now and we are only able to work a certain number of hours. And lastly, I post content on three different social media platforms in hopes to gain some extra income there.

[00:03:10]My husband does work full-time and he has now had to start applying for a second job somewhere. So, that kind of gives you an idea of what we're looking at financially. Our state is an expensive state to live in and as of right now, we do not have the option to move to a cheaper state. So, this is what we've got. I am very fortunate to have the jobs that I have because in the past for my other children, I had corporate jobs and other like grocery store jobs that I just did not have options with in order to have a workhome life balance, which is why I have worked so hard on my social media platforms and my business and my farm stand. I knew that continuing to leave my babies and not be able to raise them the way that I wanted to raise them was not something that I wanted to keep doing. Not everybody has those luxuries though and they have their corporate job and they have to go back when they have to go back. I am tired. I am uncomfortable and I would love to take off of work starting now but that is just not an option for me because like I said there is no pay once I go out. There's no paycheck coming in week to week that's steady. So for now we are going to work for as long as we