Redbook, July, 2004
Excerpted from: www.reproductivelawyer.com
Melissa B. Brisman Esq., LLC

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How much did these babies cost?
By Molly M. Ginty

Believe it or not, parents paid from $325 to $63,274 for these bundles of joy. Find out why – and what you can do to minimize the price of becoming a mom.

No doubt about it: When a couple decides to bring a child into their lives, thousands of questions flood their minds: Will it be a boy or a girl? What will we name it? How dramatically will this change our lives? But one question that might not immediately spring to mind for many couples is this: How much will having this baby set us back financially?

The answer to that question is…it depends, since these days there’s an array of different ways couples can become parents. Take, for example, the four babies pictured above. Only one of them was born the way most parents expect it’ll happen (by the mom getting pregnant through sex with her husband). The other three infants became members of their families in less conventional ways – through in vitro fertilization (IVF), adoption, and gestational surrogacy. The expenses all these parents incurred in these four situations varied widely, from a mere $325 to a jaw-dropping, budget-busting $63,274.

How to prepare for the expense? “Parents should consider the costs of having a child long before they’re even pregnant,” says Janis Biermann, vice president of education and health promotion for the March of Dimes. “Otherwise they could very well get blindsided by unexpected fees that could put them in a tough situation financially.” Familiarizing yourself early on with what your expenses will be also gives you the time to learn all the tricks out there to lower your costs – for example, by shopping around for the health insurer with the best maternity coverage or by signing up for grants that go towards helping couples adopt and undergo IVF.

So read on to find out how much having a child could cost you, as well as the best ways to cut your expenses so the big day is as stress-free as possible.

Baby #1 - Auguste Fung Schmidt, 16 months
Mother: Alice Fung
This baby cost: $325
Why: She had a pregnancy and delivered without complications, and she had health insurance.

Like 39 percent of women ages 18 to 46, Alice gets health insurance through her employer (26 percent get it through their spouse’s). “So the costs for me and my husband, John, were manageable,” says Alice. This is typical for insured moms-to-be, says Alina Salganicoff, vice president and director of Women’s Health Policy for the Kaiser Family Foundation. What’s more, insurers usually cover medically necessary procedures that develop from complications as well.


Baby #2 - Hannah Rickansrud, 14 months
Mother: Julie Rickansrud
This baby cost: $13,000
Why: She adopted

When Julie and her husband, Kyle, decided to adopt, they faced steep fees: Clients generally pay about $15,000 to the agency who finds them a pregnant woman willing to adopt out her child and several thousand in lawyers’ fees and to social workers who evaluate a couple’s physical and psychological fitness to be parents. The Rickansruds also faced stiff competition: although no accurate count is possible, experts guess that each year, about 230,000 families attempt to adopt through agencies, but only 50,000 infants are available.

Luckily, one pregnant woman who saw the Rickansruds’ application became convinced they’d be great parents. Months later, the Rickansruds met Hannah. “The minute I walked in the hospital room, the birth mother picked Hannah up and put her in my arms,” says Julie. “Hannah promptly spit up on me. I felt like she’d just christened me as her mom!”

Baby #3 - Matteo DePersis, 12 months
Mother: Nancy DePersis
This baby cost: $20,000
Why: She used IVF

After struggling to get pregnant for one year, Nancy DePersis and her husband, Orlando, discovered they were one of the 2.1 million couples in the U.S. (around 10% of the population) who suffer from infertility. Although doctors couldn’t peg the reason, they did determine that Nancy’s eggs and Orlando’s sperm were healthy. So the DePersises decided to try in vitro fertilization, in which the woman’s eggs are harvested from her body, fertilized with her partner’s or a donor’s sperm, and then implanted back in her uterus.

The procedure is costly – and only about one-forth of attempts result in pregnancy. Due to multiple attempts that are often needed, couples typically spend anywhere from $25,000 to $75,000 for a child. What’s more, this fee is rarely covered by insurance. “Most insurers only reimburse you for medically necessary treatments, explains Salganicoff. “And they don’t define having a child as a medical necessity.”

The DePersises’ first IVF attempt was unsuccessful. “It was difficult and depressing, but I reassured myself that I was young, with a good doctor, and that it often takes more than one try,” says Nancy. Months later, she was elated to find out that their second round of IVF worked: She was pregnant. Nine months later, when Nancy gave birth to Matteo, she realized that her long wait and the high price were well worth it. “I’d do it all over again without hesitation,” she says.

Baby #4 - Megan Hanny, 7 months
Mother: Gail Hanny
This baby cost: $63,274
Why: She used a gestational surrogate

Gestational surrogacy – in which an embryo resulting from IVF is implanted in the womb of a woman hired to carry the baby to term – can cost anywhere from $45,000 to $70,000. And for good reason. “Surrogacy is extremely expensive because the medical technology and legal paperwork involved are extremely elaborate,” explains Melissa Brisman, a reproductive lawyer.

In addition to the medical fees for the IVF treatment, you’ll pay $8,500 to $9,000 to the agency that finds you a surrogate, $6,000 to $17,000 in lawyers’ fees, and $22,000 to $25,000 for the surrogate (a surrogate’s medical costs are usually covered by her own health insurance). Think surrogates make a killing for what they do? Not really, insists Shirley Zagar, a director of the Organization of Parents Through Surrogacy (OPTS), a nonprofit for surrogates and the couples who use them. “Stretch her payment over nine months and you’ll find out she’s getting $2.25 an hour.”

Perhaps due to these expenses, only 1,000 babies are born by surrogacy every year, according to OPTS. Gail and her husband, Mark, decided on this route because Gail had had a hysterectomy due to complications during the birth of her first daughter, Lauren. Once their agency found a surrogate, a doctor took an embryo previously made from Gail’s egg and Mark’s sperm and implanted it in her womb. Nine moths later, Megan was born. Although their agency was a bit more expensive than others, “We chose them because other ones would have put us on a waiting list for a full year,” says Gail. “This one spared us the heartache of having to wait any longer, which was important to us.”



How to lower the costs of having a baby if you have health insurance


How to lower the costs of adoption


How to lower the costs of in vitro fertilization


How to lower the cost of gestational surrogacy


Pregnant and uninsured? Where to go…

Moms-to-be who can’t pay for health insurance may be eligible for Medicaid (call 877-267-2323 or log on to cms.hhs.gov/medicaid/). Believe it or not, Medicaid pays for one-third of all births in the U.S. You can also get financial help from your local State Children’s Health Insurance Program (cms.hhs.gov/schip/).

In general, these programs are only available to families who are not far above the poverty level. What if you don’t qualify? One alternative to high-priced hospitals is a community health clinic. Check the Blue Pages for your local Department of Public Health for a referral.