The price of pregnancy and delivery

I have given birth to a healthy, handsome and happy baby boy. We named him Johan (God is gracious) Christoph (bearing Christ) also a combination of our name. This is the best thing that ever happened to our lives aside from meeting each other and the best ever gift. Nothing compares. The feeling is like you’re always high on drugs and you can’t help but think of him every single moment that you’re alive. Johan is the realization of our dreams. He is our sweet cute legacy. But having a baby also entails responsibility as in HUGE responsibility and it also entails money. To the last, I’d say to each his own.

I gave birth June 6, 2011 at the Capitol Medical Center under my Dr. Rosalyn Carandang-Navarro. Johan’s pediatrician is Dr. Lucilla Naidas also of Capitol. I didn’t have an easy pregnancy. First trimester, I had a cyst removed from my right ovary while Johan is cocooned inside my tummy, 2nd trimester I had severe allergic reaction to something unknown, 3rd trimester I had gestational diabetes and my diabetologist required me to inject insulin to manage my blood sugar. So you see, it was not like walking in the park. But through Papa Jesus’ guidance and the help of my lovable husband, family and friends, I was able to pull it through. I had a 15-hour labor that started at around 5am. I had an epidural half part of the labor process so the last half part was painless. Johan first saw light at exactly 820pm. But it did not end there. The journey of being new parents is just starting for Mister and Misus Santiago. And we can’t wait for it to begin.

To start off, I’ll give you a bird’s eye view of what to expect in terms of expenses during pregnancy. I’ll start with the breakdown of our expenses from pregnancy:

OB Consultation – If you have a health card, no need to worry because it’s usually part of the coverage. I have my company’s Maxicare. So we didn’t pay for my pre-and-post-natal consultations. But if you don’t have one, average fee is around P300-500 per consultation.

Lab tests – Most of the health cards I checked, this is not included. Pregnancy requires so many tests to check if you and your baby are ok. You have the pregnancy test first. The kit costs about P50-100. I had my pregnancy test done thrice to be sure. Then the blood tests, then the Transvaginal ultrasound (TVS) to see the development of your baby and if your uterus is ok. Optional are the ultrasound and the 3D-4D ultrasound. I had my ultrasound done at Capitol, Johan is our first baby so we’re excited to see his development. Good thing I had it earlier because they discovered a cyst in the early stage of my pregnancy and had it removed at the right time. We had our 3D at SM North’s The Baby Ultrasound Company and got the 3D Silver Package for P2,500. There are also some repeat lab tests as prescribed by your OB. We also had our congenital anomaly scan, blood type, Rh Factor and antibody tests, complete blood count, Hepatitis B, HIV testing, Glucose screening and tolerance tests where they found out my gestational diabetes and the non stress test for the baby. I forgot the costs of these tests but it was all worth it.

If you have complications like me, you’ll need extra set of doctors like Diabetologists (Dr. Rima Tan & Dr. Leilani Baldeviso), Nutritionist and Dietician. I had my daily insulin injection and monitor my blood sugar thrice every day. I kept a food diary and blood sugar monitoring booklet. It was hard work but I never regretted anything.

Vitamins – I was taking Vitamin C, Folic Acid, Iron, Calcium.

Delivery – this is definitely not covered by your health card. Kudos to those companies who cover this. We shelled out about P80,000 for the delivery including professional fees and hospital bills at Capitol Medical Center. I stayed for 4 days in the hospital and got the small private room. I think the PF and hospital bills will depend on the room you have chosen. It is directly proportional; the more expensive the room, the more expense the rest of the fees and bills.

Fortunately, Johan was kind enough to go out into this world via my vajayjay. I had him via normal delivery. Even with my stitches from my cyst operation was still not yet fully healed, I was able to push him out without any glitch or problem. Thank you Papa Jesus! After that, it’s another different challenge that is bittersweet but I will forever welcome.