Healthy adults generally don’t spend much on healthcare. The major exception? When you have a baby. “This is a case where you’re using health services somewhat intensely, and you get stuck with higher out-of-pocket spending,” says Matthew Rae, associate director of the healthcare marketplace program at KFF. And the cost of childbirth includes more than just the price of delivery itself. Think: prenatal ultrasounds, lab tests, and vaccines, along with regular office visits and postpartum care.
How Much Does Childbirth Cost in 2024?
The Health Care Cost Institute tracked 460,000 people with employer-sponsored insurance who gave birth in 2018 to 2020 (the latest dataset available), following their total healthcare spending in the nine months prior to and 12 months after birth. It found the average amount of medical bills over that time period totaled $24,336. Fourteen percent of that (about $3,400) was paid out of pocket, on average. Sixty percent of the total costs came from the delivery itself, while a little over 25 percent was accrued during the prenatal period, and 15 percent happened in the year that followed.
The nonprofit KFF also examined prenatal, delivery, and postpartum claims from the same three years for people who gave birth at a hospital and were enrolled in large group health plans. It found that pregnancies with a vaginal delivery averaged $14,768, with $2,655 paid out of pocket, and Cesarean deliveries cost an average of $26,280, with $3,214 paid out of pocket. (Rae says that while costs may be a little higher today than when this data was collected, they haven’t jumped up significantly.)
That higher cost for C-sections is mainly due to the increased number of services and people involved in the procedure. “Anytime you have more professionals involved, you have more cost,” Rae says.
Experts Featured in This Article
Matthew Rae is the associate director of the healthcare marketplace program at KFF, formerly known as The Kaiser Family Foundation.
Merina Thomas is a University of Texas Medical Branch medical student who coauthored a study on hospital pricing.
These numbers are just averages, though, and no matter what type of delivery you have, costs can vary. For instance, the Health Care Cost Institute found that while in Mississippi the average price of a delivery was $7,639 in 2020, in California the average was $19,230 – and in the San Francisco area in particular it was $27,173. Additionally, your hospital bill will go up if you get medications like an epidural or have any complications. Delivering at a birthing center or at home will cost much less than these averages for hospital births.
So, what does all this mean for you if you’ll be giving birth soon? Well, despite a federal hospital price transparency mandate, it can actually be tricky to find out ahead of time exactly what you’ll pay at various hospitals in your area.
Last year, a team of researchers compared the childbirth prices published on hospitals’ websites with the costs they were quoted when they called the hospital on the phone, posing as uninsured patients. In 41 percent of the hospitals that provided prices both online and by phone, the cost quoted varied by 50 percent or more. Only 14 percent of the hospitals gave the same prices online and over the phone.
“It was really hard to get a straight answer,” says lead author Merina Thomas, a medical student who personally called all of the hospitals to get childbirth costs. “I think the people that were answering the phone were not really well-trained in how to search the prices. And it was hard for them because they were like, ‘Oh, what about all these complications that can happen?'”
Thomas suggests that patients deciding which nearby hospital to give birth at both check the prices listed online and call in to ask about their specific circumstances, and if there are discounts they might qualify for – like if they’re uninsured, for instance. She acknowledges it’s a lot of work and you could hear a different number depending on who picks up the phone, but it will likely give you the best estimate. (And at least with online prices, you have something in print to back you up if you’re hit with an unexpected charge on your hospital bill.)
“I think this just shines a light on how difficult it is for patients to get care that’s affordable for them,” Thomas says.
That’s a major issue because the high cost of childbirth can have significant effects. One 2021 study in JAMA Network Open that surveyed over 3,500 pregnant people found 60 percent reported healthcare unaffordability. Earlier this year, KFF calculated that new mothers are twice as likely to have at least $250 in medical debt as young women who have not had children recently. For 11 percent of new moms, they owe more than $1,000 – and that only includes for their own healthcare, not their childrens’.
Of course, these expenses arrive just as parents are absorbing the many new costs that come with caring for a child, and at a time when they may be taking time off work without paid parental leave. “When you give birth, you’re hit with a bunch of other expenses, so small amounts of money can be a big burden to bear – car seats cost a ton!” Rae says.
He adds that making childbirth more affordable really requires a 360-degree solution that looks at leave policies and the cost of childcare in addition to medical bills. “Policy people think of the health system as sort of separate from all the other financial supports that make our lives work,” he says. “And this is one [instance] where you really can’t do that because all these things are working together.”
Jennifer Heimlich is a writer and editor with more than 15 years of experience in fitness and wellness journalism. She previously worked as the senior fitness editor for Well+Good and the editor in chief of Dance Magazine. A UESCA-certified running coach, she’s written about running and fitness for publications like Shape, GQ, Runner’s World, and The Atlantic.
