July 7, 2026 • 33 mins
GP appointments, vitamins, and not to mention the added snack budget; having a baby sounds expensive. So, we asked our very own VD just how much it cost her… with receipts.
This week’s Deep Dive episode unpacks the costs associated with having a baby in modern times. Victoria shares receipts and line items from weeks 4 till 40, with a trimester-by-trimester breakdown of exactly how much she spent, how far the Medicare rebates went and whether private health insurance provided enough coverage throughout.
If you’ve been thinking about family planning or simply wanted to compare notes on out-of-pocket costs, this is the episode for you (or the parent-to-be in your life).
GET OUR BABY BUDGET: Budgeting for a new arrival? Grab ours.
READ THE BLOG: Check out our write-up on things to consider when preparing for a baby.
RETHINKING YOUR INSURANCE? Check out our playlist devoted to choosing the right insurances for you.
New here? Follow us on Instagram (@shesonthemoneyaus) for Q&As, bite-sized advice, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.
Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett (nartarshabamblett.com.au)
The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708, AFSL - 4451289
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
My name's Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations woman
and I'm here to acknowledge country. Hello, beautiful friends, we
gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank
acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering
on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect
all that you see. She's on the Money podcast acknowledges culture, country,
community and connections, bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources
(00:32):
for you to thrive.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
where we discuss all issues affecting your personal wealth goals
so that you can feel more in control of your
financial future. My friends, I'm Victoria Devine and today's episode
is a topic very close to my heart. Literally, we
are talking about babies, specifically my babies.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
They're adorable, they are life changing, they are really expensive.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
While so many of us have gone through the process
of having kids, how many of us have actually stopped
to track every single cost that you've occurred along the way.
I'm talking about the preconception care supplements and all of
those sneaky out of pocket costs that add up.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
In the end.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
So I have brought in my very own receipts. Call
me delusional, but I tracked every single cost during my
pregnancy with Campbell, down to the fruit tingles that I
was having for my nausea. Plus I'm going to share
with you exactly what it cost me to have Campbell,
plus some things that I would think that you probably
(01:34):
should consider for your own budget if you're thinking about
having your own kids. Because while people are very quick
to ask, oh my gosh, are you planning on having
kids or are you going to have them soon? Here
is my reminder that you need to do what is
right for you. So tune in at your own pace.
And if you need to skip this episode because you
just don't care about baby costs or it's a topic
(01:56):
that you just don't want to have in your ears.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Right now, girlfriend, I will catch you on the next episode.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
But before I pull out my calculator and add up
all of the numbers, which honestly shocked me as well,
we're going to be taking a really quick break and
when we return, I'm going to give you a trimester
by trimester breakdown of my baby bill to the scent
my friends, welcome back to our baby Crazed episode that
(02:23):
no one else in the She's on the Money team
agreed to be on. They were like, VI, this is
one that you've got to riff for yourself, because we
will just be shocked and in awe. I'm going to
share what is essentially an itemized breakdown of everything I
spent while having my most recent or my youngest child,
my daughter Campbell. Full disclosure, I do have private health
(02:45):
cover and I did go through the private health or
the private hospital system, right so my costs might actually
be significantly higher than if you went through the public system,
which honestly is a fact. We know it's going to
be more expensive because in Australia we do have an
incredible public system, and I would implore people to definitely
(03:07):
lean on that. I also am currently working to get
a money diarist and a whole public system diary on
for you guys, so that we can kind of compare
and contrast. And the reason I'm sharing this is honestly
in transparency. It's not because I think that you should
also spend this, but it's because I want you to
feel really empowered about making decisions and know where things
(03:30):
could add up for you or areas that you might
go v I would never spend the money on that,
and that is totally okay. But please understand that this
is my experience. I'm not talking to the experience of everybody.
I'm talking to the experience that I had and the
costs that I have incurred. There's another caveat I want
to point out as well that I have taken into consideration,
(03:52):
and that is that you are also going to typically
need to have not you do need, but if you
want to go through the private system, you need you
need to have your private health coverage for at least
twelve months before you can even use the services that
you will need during pregnancy. So right off the bat,
let's add monthly private health cover to the tally board.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
My private health cover is four.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Hundred and two dollars and sixty cents per month for
twelve months plus the nine months during my pregnancy, which
brings us up to a total of six nine hundred
and five dollars and forty cents before we even start
talking about costs for pregnancy. So that's just my private
health cover. The other thing I want to point out
is that most private health insurers will not let you
(04:39):
have access to obstetric care with their base private health cover,
so you have to have like usually their gold cover
or usually their Gold Plus hospital or something along those lines.
So the cover I have feels really expensive. But for
the mums who maybe have already looked into this, you
know that you have to have the top level of
(04:59):
cover get obstetric care. And the thing that I am
now questioning because my husband and I Campbell is now
nearly four months old or just over four months, actually terrifying.
We've said, let's just leave the baby conversation until Campbell's
at least one, before we even talk about whether we
want three babies or not. And after I did this episode,
I am now seriously considering just getting rid of the
(05:21):
private health cover and paying for the base level and
just paying out of pocket potentially for my hospital stay
if we decided to go through the private system again. Anyway,
back on track, I did some research. In twenty twenty one,
Westpac reported that the average Australian family spends seven nine
hundred and eighteen dollars setting up for a new baby,
(05:44):
and then approximately six hundred dollars per month once that
baby arrives. Now I remember using that report back in
an article in twenty twenty four, but I've also almost
hit that threshold for my private health cover alone, So like,
let's see if that start whole.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Up still in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Okay, let's go back to preconception, because one thing that
I think is important is to take the whole journey
into consideration when we're talking about finances. A lot of people,
especially when their wedding planning, they just look at the
budget for the wedding specifically and they don't add in
things like the bucks or the hen's party, or their
engagement party, or like incidental costs. And for me, those
(06:23):
definitely should be involved because you're going to have to
pay for them, and sometimes if you don't talk about this,
they fall out of the budget and then you don't
know why you're not able to afford things. So during
the month, and we're not going to talk about my
history too much, but during the month, even before receiving
a positive pregnancy test, I had actually spent almost three
(06:45):
hundred dollars on ovulation tests, medications, and supplements. So now,
because I have had a prior history of recurrent miscarriage.
One of these medications what's called utrogestrin, which was essentially
a progester owne pill that I had to take to
help me maintain a pregnancy from day one. So this
might not be on your list of mustabs, but it
(07:08):
was for me, and that roughly cost between ninety one
and one hundred and eighty two dollars per month throughout
the first trimester. The range exists because once I found
out I was pregnant, they doubled my cost, or they
doubled the medication that I was on, so really quick recap.
My preconception was two hundred and seventy two dollars and
(07:31):
seventy six cents, and that was made up of ovulation
tests which were about sixty dollars, Chase Tree supplements which
were thirty eight dollars and ninety nine cents. I was
taking aspirin and that was three dollars and eighty four
cents for the packet. Utrogestrine was ninety dollars and ninety
nine cents, and that's like a twenty one day supply.
And then I was taking my prenatal vitamins, which was
(07:54):
the Orthoplex Pure Natal ninety and that was seventy nine
ninety five, So we are up to a rolling total
of seven thousand, one hundred and seventy eight dollars and
sixteen cents before I have even gotten into my first
trimester of pregnancy. So as soon as I became pregnant,
things only started to ramp up, both figuratively and literally,
(08:19):
because I actually was diagnosed with HG, which is hyperamesis graviadem,
which is basically where you experience really horrific nausea and
vomiting so much so that you actually need medical intervention.
So on top of the pregnancy tests, the supplements, my
doctor's appointments, I had really specific medications to help me
(08:39):
address the nausea so that I could actually absorb nutrients
and actually eat and actually function. So, just running through
that list, some of the costs incurred during my first
trimester included in the first week's obviously pregnancy tests. From
week four to a week five, I was doing a
fair few of them because I was anxious, So I
(09:00):
had seven first response pregnancy tests at twenty one dollars
thirty and I had seven clear blue pregnancy tests at
thirty eight dollars ninety nine. Because if you've been in
a situation like mine, you do keep testing to make
sure that that line gets bluer. I'm not saying that
you need to do that, but that's what I was doing.
Then week five, I had to have a GP appointment
(09:21):
to get my obstetrician referral and some medication, and that
came out of the wash at seventy two dollars and
forty two cents. Then there was some medications. Then by
week six I was on a lot more medication for HG.
So I was on and I won't go through it all,
but that kind of came up to being at like
sixty dollars. The namely or the most expensive medication I
(09:44):
had during that period of time was on Danzetron, which
is an anti nausea medication, which is twenty two dollars
for ten tablets. I also had to pay for my
six week obstetric appointment, which was five hundred dollars. And
then I had some electrolytes I have been obsessed with
and was drinking Hydromama and that is thirty nine dollars
ninety nine a packet. And then because it's me, guys,
(10:07):
I have also included my hospital parking. So my hospital
parking in week six was nineteen dollars. So yeah, just
going through that, I'm looking at all of those costs
for the first trimester. Again, I'm just replicating more medications,
more hospital parking, etc. And then when I came to
(10:28):
week ten, there was some big costs there. I had
the NAPT test, which my husband and I wanted to do,
that was out of pocket and not covered by Medicare.
That was four hundred and forty nine dollars. And then
because I had a private obstetrician, which by the way,
you pay for outside of your private hospital and health cover.
(10:48):
And I'm not saying that his fees were bad, they
were fine, they were normal, but they were broken up
into three different installations. So I had my ten week
obstetric installation and that was two and a half thousand
dollars for the week eleven, week twelve. We're just looking
at hospital parking and medications. So with that in mind,
I had then spent a total of five thousand and
(11:09):
two dollars and eighty nine cents during my first trimester,
bringing our rolling total to twelve thousand, one hundred and
eighty one dollars. And five cents, well above the Westpac estimate,
mind you, So sitting here and me looking at that amount,
it kind of makes you wonder what else someone might
spend five thousand dollars on in three months. Like if
(11:30):
I gave five grand to any of my friends, I
think they'd be like five grand great, I could go
in a whole holiday, Like imagine what you could do
with twelve grand. I'm not saying it's not worth it,
It's just so much money, and I guess that's food
for thought. Now rolling on in, we're going to talk
about the second trimester. This is where I did start
(11:51):
to feel slightly better. I wasn't under the table rocking
back and forward, but I was definitely still not well.
So we have a lot of medical costs here.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Again.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Thankfully, when I did need to go into hospital to
do additional fluids or check ins, which I had a
lot of during that period of time, I was very
lucky that my obstetrician has rooms set up and is
kind of in the hospital, so that was never an
additional cost to go into hospital, but for some people
it could be. But from week thirteen I had to
(12:22):
do or didn't have to do it, was recommended to
do my thirteen week anatomy scan, and that wasn't done
at my obstetrician. That was done externally, and that was
four hundred and thirty dollars and I got one hundred
and fourteen dollars and sixty five cents back on my
Medicare rebate. Week fourteen was just a whole heap of medications.
(12:45):
That was the week that my utube gestrine doubled, so
it went to one hundred and eighty one dollars and
ninety eight cents Week fifteen no expenses money. Whin week sixteen,
I had my private ob management fee come out at
two and a half thousand dollars, and then again I
had to top up on my supplements, so my prenatals
(13:07):
I started taking Ultraflora, which is kind of like a probiotic,
which I wasn't having a very good time with all
the other medications, so I got something to support that
I'd done a blood test that was included, thankfully, so
that didn't cost me anything out of pocket. But I
was low in iron, so I started taking iron supplements,
a vitamin D supplement and C. I also needed to
(13:30):
take some B twelve so that was twenty one dollars,
twenty six dollars, thirty two dollars, and twenty eight dollars
for those rech respectively, and then I had some hospital parking.
I then, at about twenty weeks, which by the way,
this is really late in the game, I decided that
I really wanted to have a douller.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And the reason I wanted to have a dollar was
because of past birth trauma.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I just really in my first berth didn't feel like
I was supported And this whole time I'd kind of
had it in the back of my mind that that
was something I wanted to do, but I also just
wasn't sure because I have a really supportive husband. So
I was like, no, we can do it, like anyway,
changed my mind on that and hired Steph, who was
my birth dollar and honestly the most incredible person in
(14:18):
the entire world. She has since changed her fees. I
did definitely tell her that they were too low for
what she was offering. But my DULA package I started
at twenty weeks, which if I was you and you
have decided that a doula is something that you want
to have as part of your birth experience, I would
be basically trying to set them up the second I
(14:38):
got a positive pregnancy test, because the good doulers get
booked out then, and I'm just lucky that I got
in with Steph. Anyway, that cost was split into four,
so my deposit for my dula birth package was eight
hundred and seventy five dollars. Then week twenty one, I
had another external anatomy scan at four hundred and seventy
(14:59):
five dollars with a one hundred and sixty five dollars
Medicare rebate, And at that point my rebate went up
a little bit because I hit my cap for the year.
I also have got a note here that I started
getting really bad acid reflux and heartburn, so we started
adding a prescription medication for acid reflux and heartburn, and
then things like Gavascon and my lanter in addition to
(15:23):
my nausea medications which I was still taking. So we're
speeding through that. In week twenty two, I spent seventy
eight dollars on medications. Then week twenty four I spent
three hundred and seventeen dollars and ninety eight cents because
I needed to have an iron infusion. Personally, I chose
to do that in a private setting as opposed to
(15:44):
going into hospital for that, absolutely acknowledging my privilege of
choice there, but wanted to do that. But that cost
me two hundred and fifty dollars and then it cost
me forty dollars for the script for that, and then
we had some gavascon and my lanter fee wi is
twenty five weeks. I spent sixteen dollars on hospital parking.
(16:05):
I did actually end up spending a lot on hospital
parking during miss pregnancy. As I mentioned before, I had
recurrent miscarriage, so I was actually seeing my obstetrician every
two weeks, which is something that I'm really grateful for,
because every two weeks I would go into his offices
and I would have an ultrasound. So that's something that
(16:26):
was one of the driving forces behind me going no, no, no,
I don't want to use the public system. Was that
additional support, that additional hand holding, because by the time
I was pregnant with Campbell, I had experienced for late
stage miscarriages and the anxiety from that was, I would say, horrific.
(16:46):
So the idea that I could have an obstetrician that
would hold my hand through that process and basically say
you just call me and you can come in and
you can see your baby whenever you would like. And
it didn't cost me anything extra, like I wasn't paying
out of pocket for those scans because he had an
ultrasound machine in his rooms. Like to me, that was
(17:08):
peace of mind. And it was one of the big
reasons that I genuinely went down the private path again
after Harvey. I had really reconsidered and been like, oh, well,
the public system is honestly just as good, but for me,
just the privilege of having somebody hold my hand was
really good. So shout out to doctor Scott Shema, you
(17:29):
are an icon. Anyway, we'll skip past. We are now
at week twenty seven, which was an expensive week again
nineteen dollars in hospital parking, but I had another private
obstetrician management fee of two and a half thousand dollars.
I also had my second installment of my DULA birth package,
which was eight hundred and seventy five dollars, bringing us
(17:51):
up to three thousand, three hundred and ninety four dollars
for that week, which brings us to the end of
trimester two. So in trimester two I'd spent around eight thousand,
four hundred and seventy two dollars and seven cents, which
brings us to a rolling total of twenty thousand, six
(18:12):
hundred and fifty three dollars and twelve cents all up,
which is almost now triple that initial figure supplied in
the research at the top of this episode. Again, while
private health Cover does definitely play into things, it is
only a third of that story. I don't know am
I going to crack the thirty thousand dollar mark? My friends,
(18:34):
you are going to have to stick around till after
the break to find out.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Hello and welcome back.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
And in case you need a little recab, we are
covering what it actually cost me personally to have a
baby in Australia in the private health system, with my
literal receipts to prove it. A little caveat for me
is that I obviously did have things like private health
Cover before and then throughout my pregnancy, but I also
(19:03):
experienced some very traumatic nausea. So, as I said before,
medications have played a really big role in my spend,
which I'm really hoping doesn't play a really big role
in yours. But if I'm going to be saying that
I'm putting all my receipts on the table, I should
be as transparent as possible and give you a dollar
by dollar breakdown.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
But we are finally here.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
We're at the third trimester, and while I may have
spent the least during this trimester, a really good chunk
of my money actually went towards fighting heartburn and absolutely
smashing through m dual dates and Raspberry Leaf tea because
your girl is de Lulu and I was trying very
hard to have a v back. Now, I'm gonna just
(19:46):
preface that because not everyone listening is going to know
what a v back is. A v back is a
vaginal birth after a cesarean. And when I had Harvey,
I ended up having an emergency cesarean. And then when
I had Campbell, I really wanted to try for a
vaginal birth. Unfortunately that didn't end up happening. And I
(20:08):
will explain that later when we start talking about costs.
But when it comes to things like module dates and
your Raspberry Leaf tea, I mean, there is some research,
or there is some genuine research behind having madual dates
in your third trimester of pregnancy because side note, apparently
they help you soften your cervix so that you're in
(20:29):
the best possible position to give birth. But maybe you
aren't going to spend money on that, and that's fine.
I do stand by my decision because even if you
don't believe in the research, I guess they're really good
for regulating your sugar levels, and I guess they're packed
with fiber. And I'm telling you right now with nausea
medication running through my veins, basically at this point, fiber
is definitely necessary. And I'm not going to hear any
(20:51):
any module dates lander now when it comes to third
trimester between weeks twenty eight and forty and by the way,
is where it ends, because I ended up actually giving
birth to Campbell on my due date, so smack bang
on forty weeks, I spent a total of foury one
hundred and two dollars and ninety six cents. In week
(21:14):
twenty eight, I spent two hundred and eighty dollars. This
is definitely I would say, like nice to have. I
ended up buying a relatively expensive pregnancy pillow.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I love her.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
It's the bebe hug me it was two hundred and
ten dollars including delivery. I got it on Amazon. I
actually haven't seen it that cheap since. But at that
point I was getting uncomfortable and I was like, you
know what, putting the pillows from the spare bedroom between
my legs is no longer cutting the mustard. And the
rest of that week was nausea medications and other medications
(21:47):
like Gaviscon and my Lanter. We skipped a week thirty.
I spent two hundred and eighty nine dollars and seventeen
cents because I needed a big top up of all
of my supplements. Obviously that happened all at once, which
was quite frustrating. So again prenatals, my probiotics, vitamin D,
vitamin C, iron, and B twelve.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I then went a little bit d Lulu.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
And this is where some people are going to say, Victoria, divine,
what are you doing? I saw a chiropractor, and you
know what, I don't want to hear it. This chiropractor
genuinely helped me spin my baby because at thirty one weeks,
I was told that my baby was breach and for
somebody hoping for a vback, that was not an ideal scenario.
So I spent sixteen dollars on hospital parking and I
(22:31):
did a Cairo initial appointment which was one hundred and
sixty dollars. Then in week thirty two, I spent one
hundred and ninety two dollars and ninety six cents. I
had updates of all of my vaccinations. I had hooping cough,
RSVP and my flu done at my GP all the
same time, and then medications. From this point onwards, I
(22:54):
start seeing that chiropractor every single week and that is
seventy dollars. Then in week thirty four, I have my
third installation of my dollar birth package, another eight hundred
and seventy five dollars, and then I had my thirty
four week anatomy scan which was four hundred and forty
five dollars, and then I got one hundred and sixty
(23:15):
three dollars back on Medicare. It's this week, at thirty
four weeks that I start smashing Moduel dates, like I'm
having a whole packet of modual dates a week. Because
the recommendation based on research, and you do your own,
but the recommendation is that you have at least four
modul dates a day to see any benefits, so that
(23:36):
was another thirteen dollars, and then my Raspberry Leaf tea
was costing me four dollars and ninety eight cents a week.
Wick thirty five I spent two hundred and forty four dollars.
I obviously had my Cairo my module dates my Raspberry
Leaf tea, but I also in that week went and
saw a pelvic floor physio, which I one thousand percent recommend,
(23:57):
and that cost me one hundred and forty five dollars
out of pocket. Week thirty six, again the dual dates
Raspbee leef Tee Cairo Hospital parking. At this point, I'm
seeing my obstetrition every single week for a little update
and scan, and then skipping to thirty eight weeks, I
start taking another supplement. So that week it costs me
(24:18):
one hundred and thirty seven dollars and ninety eight cents
because I've added magnesium glycinate powder at thirty three dollars
and ninety nine cents because I wasn't sleeping, and also
it helps relax you. I saw a natural path throughout
my entire pregnancy. In fact, I have seen Zoe and
I adore Zoea. I'll put her information in the show
(24:39):
notes just because she's a phenomenal human being. I have
seen Zoe for now years and during this pregnancy, she
supported me like none other. And so if you're hearing
me say supplements, they're not just because I've gone on
the internet and been like, oh, that sounds good, it's
because those were recommended by my natural path I don't
recommend them for you. I think you need to go
(24:59):
and see a natural and have someone recommend what makes
sense for your body. And she did all of my
blood work and all of these tests before even recommending
one thing that I ingest, so for me, that was
really good. Then thirty nine weeks, we're still just chilling.
I was really hoping that I would have a baby
this week. I did not, So again we're a dual dates.
(25:20):
We're Cairo, we are Raspberry Leaf Tea, and I had
to go to the hospital twice that week, so parking
was twelve dollars and then sixteen dollars week forty. We
have a baby this week, which is very very exciting.
Same week, I also have my fourth installation of my
Duler Birth Package, which is eight hundred and seventy five dollars,
(25:41):
so I ended up spending just over four thy one
hundred dollars in this trimester, bringing my total to twenty
four thousand, seven hundred and fifty six dollars and eight cents.
So what wasn't included there? So that was just my
pregnancy costs, like it didn't include the edition birth costs.
So I won't get too much into it because nobody
(26:03):
needs me trauma dumping my second traumatic pregnancy. I'll do
that over on Australian birth stories very soon. But I
ended up having an emergency cesarean because I had a
uterus or a uterine rupture, which if anyone has ever
experienced that, I am so sorry, but yes, you kind
of go running down the hallways and we have to
(26:24):
get the baby out asap. And when you have a cesarean,
you then incurse some additional costs. So I had fifteen
hundred dollars for an anithetist to be there, and then
I also spent a total of eight hundred and eight
dollars on a pediatrician because you have to pay for
(26:44):
a pediatrician to be in attendance to your cesarean. Honestly,
there were you know, some other out of pocket costs
associated with my hospital stay. I gave birth in Melbourne, Australia,
and the hospital that I gave birth at I gave
birth at Epworth Is anyway one is interested at Worth Freemasons,
they have a partnership with a local hotel and you
(27:06):
go to that hotel to recover, which was honestly phenomenal.
So I spent three nights in the hospital after my
cesarean and was deemed fit to go to the hotel
for two nights, and there are midwives there. They have
all of the bells and whistles that they had in hospital,
but it was just, honestly so much nicer to experience.
But during that period of time, food was only covered
(27:30):
for me, not for my husband, so we were paying
out of pocket kind of like room service costs for that.
And then thankfully that was my first hospital stay during
that pregnancy, so I had to pay my excess on
my private health insurance, which was seven hundred and fifty dollars,
which actually takes the total for my pregnancy and birth
(27:52):
well and truly to over twenty five thousand dollars. So
the conversation now is like why is it worth it
for me?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yes? What would I do differently next time? I don't know.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
I'm looking now at potentially getting rid of my private
health cover, not entirely because I need it at a
base level, but maybe dropping it down because ultimately, one
of the things that I've taken into consideration here is
that I have had to have the top hospital cover
for my pregnancy from once I finished having my first baby,
(28:30):
right because I didn't know. I knew truly that I
wanted a second baby, but I didn't know when that
baby would come. So from the day I gave birth
to Harvey to the day I gave birth to Campbell,
I needed to have private health insurance and so for me,
that cost if you added that up the entire time,
(28:51):
I think if I had just paid out of pocket
to stay in a private hospital, which you absolutely can do,
I actually think I would have saved money there. I mean,
it's completely going to change, and it's actually been standardized
in Australia that all gold level like tiers of coverage
in Australia must include pregnancy and birth, assisted reproductive services,
(29:13):
a neonatal intensive care. So I mean, if you're shopping around,
you're actually looking at the top tier between different insurers
if you want all of that covered, and then if
you were to, like me, be considering going without, you
might want to look at the out of pocket costs
for all of those insurances in comparison as well, because
it's not just covering some of your hospital stay right,
(29:33):
Like if something goes wrong and you need nick you
or you need you know, reproductive services, maybe that's something
to consider.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I did a little bit of a comparison and humbled
myself as well.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
So the most affordable open Gold policy with the same
excess that I had, which is seven hundred and fifty dollars,
is approximately two hundred and twenty dollars a month without
the health insurance rebate. Stupidly, I'm paying double that. Maybe
because I'm loyal to my health insurer. I don't know.
I don't think I should be loyal moving forward. But
(30:06):
for you, it might be very worth paying to shop around.
And then the type of coverage that you get, it
might actually be cheaper depending on where you are located
and which hospitals are in your area. So, for example,
some insurers offer more competitive rates if you live in Perth.
I was comparing what it was based on Melbourne and
Perth because we have someone in our team based in
(30:27):
Perth and I was shocked at how much cheaper it
was in Perth. So maybe you should also consider moving
states I kid, and then you might also want to
consider your Medicare limits because mine actually ran out halfway
through my pregnancy. As always, this is not financial advice.
Please make sure that you read whatever pds associated with
(30:49):
your health insurance and check for any gap fees if
you're preverred like private hospital is or isn't included.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
But for me, all of.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
This is added up. I don't regret it. But also
that does and include even one nappy. It doesn't include
the formula, it doesn't include you know, a bed, It
doesn't include any technical baby costs. That is just pregnancy
and birth. And you could definitely do it much cheaper
using the public system. And maybe this episode has like
really reiterated to you, like wow, I didn't realize that
(31:19):
if you go through the private system, you do have
to pay for your obstetrician out of pocket, you do
have to pay for external scans, And I didn't realize that.
I thought you just you know, claimed it on your
private health insurance, Like I spent seven and a half
thousand dollars total on a private obstetrician and that is
not covered by my private health insurance. So I think
that's definitely worthy of consideration as well. And to be honest,
(31:43):
if you I don't know, I don't want to give
advice because you do you, but if you have no
complications and you're okay to go through the public system,
like I don't know why anyone wouldn't like my anxiety
and my health anxiety and everything led me to the
private ceas And for me personally, I don't regret that,
but that doesn't mean that's what you should do anyway.
(32:05):
I'll be sharing all of their helpful insurance links in
the show notes and a very helpful baby budget tracker
which I used and I know a lot of people
in our community have used and loved so that you
can save and then you know, use that during your
own journeys. But if you loved this episode and hanging
out with me solo, I mean, please share it with
friend or someone who might you know, want to know
(32:27):
more about the finances of planning a baby, or maybe
even they want to laugh at me for how much
it costs me. I mean, we need to get something
out of the fact that it cost me well on
twenty five thousand dollars to be pregnant.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Anyway, Love you guys. Please subscribe so that.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
You never miss the next episode and I'll see you
later in the week for Friday drinks.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Bye.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
not be relied upon to make an investment meant or
financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
The PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
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She's on the Money.
Speaker 2 (00:02):
She's on the Money.
Speaker 3 (00:10):
My name's Tatasha Bamblet. I'm a proud First Nations woman
and I'm here to acknowledge country. Hello, beautiful friends, we
gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank
acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering
on today. Take pleasure in all the land and respect
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(00:32):
for you to thrive.
Speaker 4 (00:32):
Hello, and welcome to She's on the Money, the podcast
where we discuss all issues affecting your personal wealth goals
so that you can feel more in control of your
financial future. My friends, I'm Victoria Devine and today's episode
is a topic very close to my heart. Literally, we
are talking about babies, specifically my babies.
Speaker 2 (00:52):
They're adorable, they are life changing, they are really expensive.
Speaker 4 (00:57):
While so many of us have gone through the process
of having kids, how many of us have actually stopped
to track every single cost that you've occurred along the way.
I'm talking about the preconception care supplements and all of
those sneaky out of pocket costs that add up.
Speaker 3 (01:13):
In the end.
Speaker 4 (01:14):
So I have brought in my very own receipts. Call
me delusional, but I tracked every single cost during my
pregnancy with Campbell, down to the fruit tingles that I
was having for my nausea. Plus I'm going to share
with you exactly what it cost me to have Campbell,
plus some things that I would think that you probably
(01:34):
should consider for your own budget if you're thinking about
having your own kids. Because while people are very quick
to ask, oh my gosh, are you planning on having
kids or are you going to have them soon? Here
is my reminder that you need to do what is
right for you. So tune in at your own pace.
And if you need to skip this episode because you
just don't care about baby costs or it's a topic
(01:56):
that you just don't want to have in your ears.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
Right now, girlfriend, I will catch you on the next episode.
Speaker 4 (02:01):
But before I pull out my calculator and add up
all of the numbers, which honestly shocked me as well,
we're going to be taking a really quick break and
when we return, I'm going to give you a trimester
by trimester breakdown of my baby bill to the scent
my friends, welcome back to our baby Crazed episode that
(02:23):
no one else in the She's on the Money team
agreed to be on. They were like, VI, this is
one that you've got to riff for yourself, because we
will just be shocked and in awe. I'm going to
share what is essentially an itemized breakdown of everything I
spent while having my most recent or my youngest child,
my daughter Campbell. Full disclosure, I do have private health
(02:45):
cover and I did go through the private health or
the private hospital system, right so my costs might actually
be significantly higher than if you went through the public system,
which honestly is a fact. We know it's going to
be more expensive because in Australia we do have an
incredible public system, and I would implore people to definitely
(03:07):
lean on that. I also am currently working to get
a money diarist and a whole public system diary on
for you guys, so that we can kind of compare
and contrast. And the reason I'm sharing this is honestly
in transparency. It's not because I think that you should
also spend this, but it's because I want you to
feel really empowered about making decisions and know where things
(03:30):
could add up for you or areas that you might
go v I would never spend the money on that,
and that is totally okay. But please understand that this
is my experience. I'm not talking to the experience of everybody.
I'm talking to the experience that I had and the
costs that I have incurred. There's another caveat I want
to point out as well that I have taken into consideration,
(03:52):
and that is that you are also going to typically
need to have not you do need, but if you
want to go through the private system, you need you
need to have your private health coverage for at least
twelve months before you can even use the services that
you will need during pregnancy. So right off the bat,
let's add monthly private health cover to the tally board.
Speaker 2 (04:12):
My private health cover is four.
Speaker 4 (04:14):
Hundred and two dollars and sixty cents per month for
twelve months plus the nine months during my pregnancy, which
brings us up to a total of six nine hundred
and five dollars and forty cents before we even start
talking about costs for pregnancy. So that's just my private
health cover. The other thing I want to point out
is that most private health insurers will not let you
(04:39):
have access to obstetric care with their base private health cover,
so you have to have like usually their gold cover
or usually their Gold Plus hospital or something along those lines.
So the cover I have feels really expensive. But for
the mums who maybe have already looked into this, you
know that you have to have the top level of
(04:59):
cover get obstetric care. And the thing that I am
now questioning because my husband and I Campbell is now
nearly four months old or just over four months, actually terrifying.
We've said, let's just leave the baby conversation until Campbell's
at least one, before we even talk about whether we
want three babies or not. And after I did this episode,
I am now seriously considering just getting rid of the
(05:21):
private health cover and paying for the base level and
just paying out of pocket potentially for my hospital stay
if we decided to go through the private system again. Anyway,
back on track, I did some research. In twenty twenty one,
Westpac reported that the average Australian family spends seven nine
hundred and eighteen dollars setting up for a new baby,
(05:44):
and then approximately six hundred dollars per month once that
baby arrives. Now I remember using that report back in
an article in twenty twenty four, but I've also almost
hit that threshold for my private health cover alone, So like,
let's see if that start whole.
Speaker 2 (06:00):
Up still in twenty twenty six.
Speaker 4 (06:02):
Okay, let's go back to preconception, because one thing that
I think is important is to take the whole journey
into consideration when we're talking about finances. A lot of people,
especially when their wedding planning, they just look at the
budget for the wedding specifically and they don't add in
things like the bucks or the hen's party, or their
engagement party, or like incidental costs. And for me, those
(06:23):
definitely should be involved because you're going to have to
pay for them, and sometimes if you don't talk about this,
they fall out of the budget and then you don't
know why you're not able to afford things. So during
the month, and we're not going to talk about my
history too much, but during the month, even before receiving
a positive pregnancy test, I had actually spent almost three
(06:45):
hundred dollars on ovulation tests, medications, and supplements. So now,
because I have had a prior history of recurrent miscarriage.
One of these medications what's called utrogestrin, which was essentially
a progester owne pill that I had to take to
help me maintain a pregnancy from day one. So this
might not be on your list of mustabs, but it
(07:08):
was for me, and that roughly cost between ninety one
and one hundred and eighty two dollars per month throughout
the first trimester. The range exists because once I found
out I was pregnant, they doubled my cost, or they
doubled the medication that I was on, so really quick recap.
My preconception was two hundred and seventy two dollars and
(07:31):
seventy six cents, and that was made up of ovulation
tests which were about sixty dollars, Chase Tree supplements which
were thirty eight dollars and ninety nine cents. I was
taking aspirin and that was three dollars and eighty four
cents for the packet. Utrogestrine was ninety dollars and ninety
nine cents, and that's like a twenty one day supply.
And then I was taking my prenatal vitamins, which was
(07:54):
the Orthoplex Pure Natal ninety and that was seventy nine
ninety five, So we are up to a rolling total
of seven thousand, one hundred and seventy eight dollars and
sixteen cents before I have even gotten into my first
trimester of pregnancy. So as soon as I became pregnant,
things only started to ramp up, both figuratively and literally,
(08:19):
because I actually was diagnosed with HG, which is hyperamesis graviadem,
which is basically where you experience really horrific nausea and
vomiting so much so that you actually need medical intervention.
So on top of the pregnancy tests, the supplements, my
doctor's appointments, I had really specific medications to help me
(08:39):
address the nausea so that I could actually absorb nutrients
and actually eat and actually function. So, just running through
that list, some of the costs incurred during my first
trimester included in the first week's obviously pregnancy tests. From
week four to a week five, I was doing a
fair few of them because I was anxious, So I
(09:00):
had seven first response pregnancy tests at twenty one dollars
thirty and I had seven clear blue pregnancy tests at
thirty eight dollars ninety nine. Because if you've been in
a situation like mine, you do keep testing to make
sure that that line gets bluer. I'm not saying that
you need to do that, but that's what I was doing.
Then week five, I had to have a GP appointment
(09:21):
to get my obstetrician referral and some medication, and that
came out of the wash at seventy two dollars and
forty two cents. Then there was some medications. Then by
week six I was on a lot more medication for HG.
So I was on and I won't go through it all,
but that kind of came up to being at like
sixty dollars. The namely or the most expensive medication I
(09:44):
had during that period of time was on Danzetron, which
is an anti nausea medication, which is twenty two dollars
for ten tablets. I also had to pay for my
six week obstetric appointment, which was five hundred dollars. And
then I had some electrolytes I have been obsessed with
and was drinking Hydromama and that is thirty nine dollars
ninety nine a packet. And then because it's me, guys,
(10:07):
I have also included my hospital parking. So my hospital
parking in week six was nineteen dollars. So yeah, just
going through that, I'm looking at all of those costs
for the first trimester. Again, I'm just replicating more medications,
more hospital parking, etc. And then when I came to
(10:28):
week ten, there was some big costs there. I had
the NAPT test, which my husband and I wanted to do,
that was out of pocket and not covered by Medicare.
That was four hundred and forty nine dollars. And then
because I had a private obstetrician, which by the way,
you pay for outside of your private hospital and health cover.
(10:48):
And I'm not saying that his fees were bad, they
were fine, they were normal, but they were broken up
into three different installations. So I had my ten week
obstetric installation and that was two and a half thousand
dollars for the week eleven, week twelve. We're just looking
at hospital parking and medications. So with that in mind,
I had then spent a total of five thousand and
(11:09):
two dollars and eighty nine cents during my first trimester,
bringing our rolling total to twelve thousand, one hundred and
eighty one dollars. And five cents, well above the Westpac estimate,
mind you, So sitting here and me looking at that amount,
it kind of makes you wonder what else someone might
spend five thousand dollars on in three months. Like if
(11:30):
I gave five grand to any of my friends, I
think they'd be like five grand great, I could go
in a whole holiday, Like imagine what you could do
with twelve grand. I'm not saying it's not worth it,
It's just so much money, and I guess that's food
for thought. Now rolling on in, we're going to talk
about the second trimester. This is where I did start
(11:51):
to feel slightly better. I wasn't under the table rocking
back and forward, but I was definitely still not well.
So we have a lot of medical costs here.
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Again.
Speaker 4 (12:00):
Thankfully, when I did need to go into hospital to
do additional fluids or check ins, which I had a
lot of during that period of time, I was very
lucky that my obstetrician has rooms set up and is
kind of in the hospital, so that was never an
additional cost to go into hospital, but for some people
it could be. But from week thirteen I had to
(12:22):
do or didn't have to do it, was recommended to
do my thirteen week anatomy scan, and that wasn't done
at my obstetrician. That was done externally, and that was
four hundred and thirty dollars and I got one hundred
and fourteen dollars and sixty five cents back on my
Medicare rebate. Week fourteen was just a whole heap of medications.
(12:45):
That was the week that my utube gestrine doubled, so
it went to one hundred and eighty one dollars and
ninety eight cents Week fifteen no expenses money. Whin week sixteen,
I had my private ob management fee come out at
two and a half thousand dollars, and then again I
had to top up on my supplements, so my prenatals
(13:07):
I started taking Ultraflora, which is kind of like a probiotic,
which I wasn't having a very good time with all
the other medications, so I got something to support that
I'd done a blood test that was included, thankfully, so
that didn't cost me anything out of pocket. But I
was low in iron, so I started taking iron supplements,
a vitamin D supplement and C. I also needed to
(13:30):
take some B twelve so that was twenty one dollars,
twenty six dollars, thirty two dollars, and twenty eight dollars
for those rech respectively, and then I had some hospital parking.
I then, at about twenty weeks, which by the way,
this is really late in the game, I decided that
I really wanted to have a douller.
Speaker 2 (13:49):
And the reason I wanted to have a dollar was
because of past birth trauma.
Speaker 4 (13:54):
I just really in my first berth didn't feel like
I was supported And this whole time I'd kind of
had it in the back of my mind that that
was something I wanted to do, but I also just
wasn't sure because I have a really supportive husband. So
I was like, no, we can do it, like anyway,
changed my mind on that and hired Steph, who was
my birth dollar and honestly the most incredible person in
(14:18):
the entire world. She has since changed her fees. I
did definitely tell her that they were too low for
what she was offering. But my DULA package I started
at twenty weeks, which if I was you and you
have decided that a doula is something that you want
to have as part of your birth experience, I would
be basically trying to set them up the second I
(14:38):
got a positive pregnancy test, because the good doulers get
booked out then, and I'm just lucky that I got
in with Steph. Anyway, that cost was split into four,
so my deposit for my dula birth package was eight
hundred and seventy five dollars. Then week twenty one, I
had another external anatomy scan at four hundred and seventy
(14:59):
five dollars with a one hundred and sixty five dollars
Medicare rebate, And at that point my rebate went up
a little bit because I hit my cap for the year.
I also have got a note here that I started
getting really bad acid reflux and heartburn, so we started
adding a prescription medication for acid reflux and heartburn, and
then things like Gavascon and my lanter in addition to
(15:23):
my nausea medications which I was still taking. So we're
speeding through that. In week twenty two, I spent seventy
eight dollars on medications. Then week twenty four I spent
three hundred and seventeen dollars and ninety eight cents because
I needed to have an iron infusion. Personally, I chose
to do that in a private setting as opposed to
(15:44):
going into hospital for that, absolutely acknowledging my privilege of
choice there, but wanted to do that. But that cost
me two hundred and fifty dollars and then it cost
me forty dollars for the script for that, and then
we had some gavascon and my lanter fee wi is
twenty five weeks. I spent sixteen dollars on hospital parking.
(16:05):
I did actually end up spending a lot on hospital
parking during miss pregnancy. As I mentioned before, I had
recurrent miscarriage, so I was actually seeing my obstetrician every
two weeks, which is something that I'm really grateful for,
because every two weeks I would go into his offices
and I would have an ultrasound. So that's something that
(16:26):
was one of the driving forces behind me going no, no, no,
I don't want to use the public system. Was that
additional support, that additional hand holding, because by the time
I was pregnant with Campbell, I had experienced for late
stage miscarriages and the anxiety from that was, I would say, horrific.
(16:46):
So the idea that I could have an obstetrician that
would hold my hand through that process and basically say
you just call me and you can come in and
you can see your baby whenever you would like. And
it didn't cost me anything extra, like I wasn't paying
out of pocket for those scans because he had an
ultrasound machine in his rooms. Like to me, that was
(17:08):
peace of mind. And it was one of the big
reasons that I genuinely went down the private path again
after Harvey. I had really reconsidered and been like, oh, well,
the public system is honestly just as good, but for me,
just the privilege of having somebody hold my hand was
really good. So shout out to doctor Scott Shema, you
(17:29):
are an icon. Anyway, we'll skip past. We are now
at week twenty seven, which was an expensive week again
nineteen dollars in hospital parking, but I had another private
obstetrician management fee of two and a half thousand dollars.
I also had my second installment of my DULA birth package,
which was eight hundred and seventy five dollars, bringing us
(17:51):
up to three thousand, three hundred and ninety four dollars
for that week, which brings us to the end of
trimester two. So in trimester two I'd spent around eight thousand,
four hundred and seventy two dollars and seven cents, which
brings us to a rolling total of twenty thousand, six
(18:12):
hundred and fifty three dollars and twelve cents all up,
which is almost now triple that initial figure supplied in
the research at the top of this episode. Again, while
private health Cover does definitely play into things, it is
only a third of that story. I don't know am
I going to crack the thirty thousand dollar mark? My friends,
(18:34):
you are going to have to stick around till after
the break to find out.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
Hello and welcome back.
Speaker 4 (18:42):
And in case you need a little recab, we are
covering what it actually cost me personally to have a
baby in Australia in the private health system, with my
literal receipts to prove it. A little caveat for me
is that I obviously did have things like private health
Cover before and then throughout my pregnancy, but I also
(19:03):
experienced some very traumatic nausea. So, as I said before,
medications have played a really big role in my spend,
which I'm really hoping doesn't play a really big role
in yours. But if I'm going to be saying that
I'm putting all my receipts on the table, I should
be as transparent as possible and give you a dollar
by dollar breakdown.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
But we are finally here.
Speaker 4 (19:25):
We're at the third trimester, and while I may have
spent the least during this trimester, a really good chunk
of my money actually went towards fighting heartburn and absolutely
smashing through m dual dates and Raspberry Leaf tea because
your girl is de Lulu and I was trying very
hard to have a v back. Now, I'm gonna just
(19:46):
preface that because not everyone listening is going to know
what a v back is. A v back is a
vaginal birth after a cesarean. And when I had Harvey,
I ended up having an emergency cesarean. And then when
I had Campbell, I really wanted to try for a
vaginal birth. Unfortunately that didn't end up happening. And I
(20:08):
will explain that later when we start talking about costs.
But when it comes to things like module dates and
your Raspberry Leaf tea, I mean, there is some research,
or there is some genuine research behind having madual dates
in your third trimester of pregnancy because side note, apparently
they help you soften your cervix so that you're in
(20:29):
the best possible position to give birth. But maybe you
aren't going to spend money on that, and that's fine.
I do stand by my decision because even if you
don't believe in the research, I guess they're really good
for regulating your sugar levels, and I guess they're packed
with fiber. And I'm telling you right now with nausea
medication running through my veins, basically at this point, fiber
is definitely necessary. And I'm not going to hear any
(20:51):
any module dates lander now when it comes to third
trimester between weeks twenty eight and forty and by the way,
is where it ends, because I ended up actually giving
birth to Campbell on my due date, so smack bang
on forty weeks, I spent a total of foury one
hundred and two dollars and ninety six cents. In week
(21:14):
twenty eight, I spent two hundred and eighty dollars. This
is definitely I would say, like nice to have. I
ended up buying a relatively expensive pregnancy pillow.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
I love her.
Speaker 4 (21:25):
It's the bebe hug me it was two hundred and
ten dollars including delivery. I got it on Amazon. I
actually haven't seen it that cheap since. But at that
point I was getting uncomfortable and I was like, you
know what, putting the pillows from the spare bedroom between
my legs is no longer cutting the mustard. And the
rest of that week was nausea medications and other medications
(21:47):
like Gaviscon and my Lanter. We skipped a week thirty.
I spent two hundred and eighty nine dollars and seventeen
cents because I needed a big top up of all
of my supplements. Obviously that happened all at once, which
was quite frustrating. So again prenatals, my probiotics, vitamin D,
vitamin C, iron, and B twelve.
Speaker 2 (22:06):
I then went a little bit d Lulu.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
And this is where some people are going to say, Victoria, divine,
what are you doing? I saw a chiropractor, and you
know what, I don't want to hear it. This chiropractor
genuinely helped me spin my baby because at thirty one weeks,
I was told that my baby was breach and for
somebody hoping for a vback, that was not an ideal scenario.
So I spent sixteen dollars on hospital parking and I
(22:31):
did a Cairo initial appointment which was one hundred and
sixty dollars. Then in week thirty two, I spent one
hundred and ninety two dollars and ninety six cents. I
had updates of all of my vaccinations. I had hooping cough,
RSVP and my flu done at my GP all the
same time, and then medications. From this point onwards, I
(22:54):
start seeing that chiropractor every single week and that is
seventy dollars. Then in week thirty four, I have my
third installation of my dollar birth package, another eight hundred
and seventy five dollars, and then I had my thirty
four week anatomy scan which was four hundred and forty
five dollars, and then I got one hundred and sixty
(23:15):
three dollars back on Medicare. It's this week, at thirty
four weeks that I start smashing Moduel dates, like I'm
having a whole packet of modual dates a week. Because
the recommendation based on research, and you do your own,
but the recommendation is that you have at least four
modul dates a day to see any benefits, so that
(23:36):
was another thirteen dollars, and then my Raspberry Leaf tea
was costing me four dollars and ninety eight cents a week.
Wick thirty five I spent two hundred and forty four dollars.
I obviously had my Cairo my module dates my Raspberry
Leaf tea, but I also in that week went and
saw a pelvic floor physio, which I one thousand percent recommend,
(23:57):
and that cost me one hundred and forty five dollars
out of pocket. Week thirty six, again the dual dates
Raspbee leef Tee Cairo Hospital parking. At this point, I'm
seeing my obstetrition every single week for a little update
and scan, and then skipping to thirty eight weeks, I
start taking another supplement. So that week it costs me
(24:18):
one hundred and thirty seven dollars and ninety eight cents
because I've added magnesium glycinate powder at thirty three dollars
and ninety nine cents because I wasn't sleeping, and also
it helps relax you. I saw a natural path throughout
my entire pregnancy. In fact, I have seen Zoe and
I adore Zoea. I'll put her information in the show
(24:39):
notes just because she's a phenomenal human being. I have
seen Zoe for now years and during this pregnancy, she
supported me like none other. And so if you're hearing
me say supplements, they're not just because I've gone on
the internet and been like, oh, that sounds good, it's
because those were recommended by my natural path I don't
recommend them for you. I think you need to go
(24:59):
and see a natural and have someone recommend what makes
sense for your body. And she did all of my
blood work and all of these tests before even recommending
one thing that I ingest, so for me, that was
really good. Then thirty nine weeks, we're still just chilling.
I was really hoping that I would have a baby
this week. I did not, So again we're a dual dates.
(25:20):
We're Cairo, we are Raspberry Leaf Tea, and I had
to go to the hospital twice that week, so parking
was twelve dollars and then sixteen dollars week forty. We
have a baby this week, which is very very exciting.
Same week, I also have my fourth installation of my
Duler Birth Package, which is eight hundred and seventy five dollars,
(25:41):
so I ended up spending just over four thy one
hundred dollars in this trimester, bringing my total to twenty
four thousand, seven hundred and fifty six dollars and eight cents.
So what wasn't included there? So that was just my
pregnancy costs, like it didn't include the edition birth costs.
So I won't get too much into it because nobody
(26:03):
needs me trauma dumping my second traumatic pregnancy. I'll do
that over on Australian birth stories very soon. But I
ended up having an emergency cesarean because I had a
uterus or a uterine rupture, which if anyone has ever
experienced that, I am so sorry, but yes, you kind
of go running down the hallways and we have to
(26:24):
get the baby out asap. And when you have a cesarean,
you then incurse some additional costs. So I had fifteen
hundred dollars for an anithetist to be there, and then
I also spent a total of eight hundred and eight
dollars on a pediatrician because you have to pay for
(26:44):
a pediatrician to be in attendance to your cesarean. Honestly,
there were you know, some other out of pocket costs
associated with my hospital stay. I gave birth in Melbourne, Australia,
and the hospital that I gave birth at I gave
birth at Epworth Is anyway one is interested at Worth Freemasons,
they have a partnership with a local hotel and you
(27:06):
go to that hotel to recover, which was honestly phenomenal.
So I spent three nights in the hospital after my
cesarean and was deemed fit to go to the hotel
for two nights, and there are midwives there. They have
all of the bells and whistles that they had in hospital,
but it was just, honestly so much nicer to experience.
But during that period of time, food was only covered
(27:30):
for me, not for my husband, so we were paying
out of pocket kind of like room service costs for that.
And then thankfully that was my first hospital stay during
that pregnancy, so I had to pay my excess on
my private health insurance, which was seven hundred and fifty dollars,
which actually takes the total for my pregnancy and birth
(27:52):
well and truly to over twenty five thousand dollars. So
the conversation now is like why is it worth it
for me?
Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yes? What would I do differently next time? I don't know.
Speaker 4 (28:07):
I'm looking now at potentially getting rid of my private
health cover, not entirely because I need it at a
base level, but maybe dropping it down because ultimately, one
of the things that I've taken into consideration here is
that I have had to have the top hospital cover
for my pregnancy from once I finished having my first baby,
(28:30):
right because I didn't know. I knew truly that I
wanted a second baby, but I didn't know when that
baby would come. So from the day I gave birth
to Harvey to the day I gave birth to Campbell,
I needed to have private health insurance and so for me,
that cost if you added that up the entire time,
(28:51):
I think if I had just paid out of pocket
to stay in a private hospital, which you absolutely can do,
I actually think I would have saved money there. I mean,
it's completely going to change, and it's actually been standardized
in Australia that all gold level like tiers of coverage
in Australia must include pregnancy and birth, assisted reproductive services,
(29:13):
a neonatal intensive care. So I mean, if you're shopping around,
you're actually looking at the top tier between different insurers
if you want all of that covered, and then if
you were to, like me, be considering going without, you
might want to look at the out of pocket costs
for all of those insurances in comparison as well, because
it's not just covering some of your hospital stay right,
(29:33):
Like if something goes wrong and you need nick you
or you need you know, reproductive services, maybe that's something
to consider.
Speaker 2 (29:40):
I did a little bit of a comparison and humbled
myself as well.
Speaker 4 (29:43):
So the most affordable open Gold policy with the same
excess that I had, which is seven hundred and fifty dollars,
is approximately two hundred and twenty dollars a month without
the health insurance rebate. Stupidly, I'm paying double that. Maybe
because I'm loyal to my health insurer. I don't know.
I don't think I should be loyal moving forward. But
(30:06):
for you, it might be very worth paying to shop around.
And then the type of coverage that you get, it
might actually be cheaper depending on where you are located
and which hospitals are in your area. So, for example,
some insurers offer more competitive rates if you live in Perth.
I was comparing what it was based on Melbourne and
Perth because we have someone in our team based in
(30:27):
Perth and I was shocked at how much cheaper it
was in Perth. So maybe you should also consider moving
states I kid, and then you might also want to
consider your Medicare limits because mine actually ran out halfway
through my pregnancy. As always, this is not financial advice.
Please make sure that you read whatever pds associated with
(30:49):
your health insurance and check for any gap fees if
you're preverred like private hospital is or isn't included.
Speaker 2 (30:56):
But for me, all of.
Speaker 4 (30:57):
This is added up. I don't regret it. But also
that does and include even one nappy. It doesn't include
the formula, it doesn't include you know, a bed, It
doesn't include any technical baby costs. That is just pregnancy
and birth. And you could definitely do it much cheaper
using the public system. And maybe this episode has like
really reiterated to you, like wow, I didn't realize that
(31:19):
if you go through the private system, you do have
to pay for your obstetrician out of pocket, you do
have to pay for external scans, And I didn't realize that.
I thought you just you know, claimed it on your
private health insurance, Like I spent seven and a half
thousand dollars total on a private obstetrician and that is
not covered by my private health insurance. So I think
that's definitely worthy of consideration as well. And to be honest,
(31:43):
if you I don't know, I don't want to give
advice because you do you, but if you have no
complications and you're okay to go through the public system,
like I don't know why anyone wouldn't like my anxiety
and my health anxiety and everything led me to the
private ceas And for me personally, I don't regret that,
but that doesn't mean that's what you should do anyway.
(32:05):
I'll be sharing all of their helpful insurance links in
the show notes and a very helpful baby budget tracker
which I used and I know a lot of people
in our community have used and loved so that you
can save and then you know, use that during your
own journeys. But if you loved this episode and hanging
out with me solo, I mean, please share it with
friend or someone who might you know, want to know
(32:27):
more about the finances of planning a baby, or maybe
even they want to laugh at me for how much
it costs me. I mean, we need to get something
out of the fact that it cost me well on
twenty five thousand dollars to be pregnant.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Anyway, Love you guys. Please subscribe so that.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
You never miss the next episode and I'll see you
later in the week for Friday drinks.
Speaker 2 (32:43):
Bye.
Speaker 4 (32:48):
The advice shared on She's on the Money is general
in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's
on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should
not be relied upon to make an investment meant or
financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read.
Speaker 1 (33:04):
The PDS TMD and obtain appropriate financial.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Advice tailored towards your needs.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
Victoria Divine and She's on the Money are authorized representatives
of Money sherper P T y lt D A b
N three two one six four nine two seven seven
zero eight AFS L four five one two eight nine
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