I began this post over a year ago and intended it to be about my second son’s birth. It wound up being a commentary on my experience with insurance and birthing babies in the US. I think I got overwhelmed by adding his birth story here because the post was already so “meaty” with other things. Anyhow, I’m trying to get back to writing in this space and am cleaning things up a bit, so here is the post I wrote almost a year ago.
I figured it was time to write out Ben Ben’s birth story. He just turned 1 a week ago, and we finally got the insurance money back from his birth, for which we paid the birthing center up front. They then closed down the center about five or six months after he was born, which may or may not have had anything to do with how long it took us to get the insurance money back. The incompetence of their biller certainly did not help. Though she says she submitted the claim 3 or 4 times, each time I called, the insurance company had no record of a claim being made. It took me actually getting the claim from the biller through the former birthing center staff member, and then submitting it directly to the insurance company myself, to even get the claim submitted.
We are grateful the claim was accepted and paid. We are grateful that the biller sent the check to the former owner of the birthing center, and we are grateful that they sent us our piece of the insurance payout. Any one of those steps could have stalled and prevented us from getting our reimbursement. We are also grateful to get anything back for this birth. We did not get anything back from our first birth.
All of this to say, some things should change with healthcare and insurance in the US. Women should have a chance to choose how they want to birth their babies. If they choose a home birth or birthing center with a midwife, insurance should cover that. Midwife assisted births are not for everyone, but that choice should be there through insurance. I am so grateful we had the means to do two out of hospital births with insurance only covering a portion of the second birth. I firmly believe that I would have been induced and likely would have been given an unnecessary c section with my first had I gone to the hospital to give birth. See why here My 4:8 Baby My labor also likely would have stalled due to anxiety. See more about my anxiety disorder here Social Anxiety Disorder.
Mama Mango 