I just changed my health insurance coverage to my husband's policy since his company was bought out and the new owners don't require any employee out-of-pocket contributions for health insurance coverage! It's a plan that requires high copays, but it's nice not to have anything deducted from his paycheck. I tried to research what the expected out-of-pocket costs would be under my Humana PPO plan, to no avail. That data just wasn't available from Humana or from my local hospitals directly. With my new Blue Cross PPO plan, there is a handy cost estimator on their web site that allows you to compare average costs at different providers and weigh those against some quality of care metrics. Exactly the information I wanted! Now I know that the usual cost for a standard vaginal delivery (including the costs of drugs, there is no data available for the cost of a natural birth in a hospital) is between $5,000 and $6,000 and that the hospital that my current OB/GYN provider is affiliated with is about $1,000 more expensive than the costs at the hospital that is only 4 miles from my house. Both of these regional hospitals have newly-remodeled women's centers featuring luxury birthing suites and a full suite of preparatory classes. I'm leaning towards the cheaper, closer hospital because they have several suites with large tubs and have TWO midwives. There are only a grand total of three licensed midwives in the area. And I'm a little concerned about the general philosophy of my current GYN provider. They are affiliated with the second hospital on my list, but I would describe them as being a "high-volume" practice and get the impression that they don't give very personalized service and have a heavy reliance on technology and medical intervention. I have a good friend who has had two babies with that practice and hospital and she claims she had very positive experiences with both, but she wasn't interested in natural delivery so I'm at least partially discounting her testimony.
I've been checking out some media like the book "Pushed" and the documentary "The Business of Being Born" and am appalled at the statistics of induction, C-Section, unwanted episiotomies and administration of drugs. My sister had unwanted drugs administered to her 14 years ago at what was considered then to be the leading birthing center in our area, and I'm determined that I won't allow that to happen to me. But I also want to have my baby-to-be in a hospital setting because my mother had a very traumatic home delivery with me, causing both of us to nearly die. There were complications that the midwife wasn't qualified to deal with.
Having a midwife AT the hospital seems like the best of both worlds to me, but I'm going to meet with one of them and see if that changes my opinions.
Oh yes, and my insurance lists the two midwives affiliated with my county hospital as in-network providers, so that's good news!
