Midwifery is catching

A long long time ago, I wrote a post about how much a homebirth cost. It is my most popular post by far and I am feeling the need to update it.

*EDITED* to add that these costs are not for private births per se - the ones Anna gave me are for New Zealand and not for Australia.

The costs that I quoted were from enquiries in Sydney, so let me upate for Adelaide. Rumour has it (as in, I’ve never felt the need to ask midwives directly but people who have had homebirths have hinted around these numbers) that a privately attended birth here will cost $2,000 - $3,000 rougly: a little less here, a little more there, up to $4,000 one person reported to me (but that included a few extras). The hire of a birth pool is usually extra to this. 

A few of the comments have questioned the $50k figure I put on business costs. I wasn’t clear there but I will say that those costs would be that high to cover the cost of self-insurance if that’s the way that I wanted to go.

Anna gave me me some New Zealand figures to work with:

4 births a month @ $2,000 each roughly, from the NZ government = $8,000
$900 in business costs a month = $7,100 / year
If I assume one month off a year, that’d be $78,100 a year

Homebirths cost $400 more to the midwife because of the calling in of a second midwife so potentially up to $17,600 less, so $60,500 (but perhaps this is balanced out by being the "second midwife" occassionally?)

So there you go, an update and a reflection of how it might be in Australia if we ever had a homebirth policy!