New Mom Shares Hospital Bill Showing How Much It Cost For Her To Give Birth — & The Bill Her Newborn Received For Being Born
The shocking price might have something to do with why so many people are refusing to start families.
paulaphoto | Shutterstock In a TikTok video, a new mom named Kayla Kosuga shared her shock after receiving the hospital bill for her third child, a baby boy. The sobering cost she readily shared is a clear message that having a baby in the U.S. is becoming a privilege only afforded to the wealthy.
It's no secret that raising kids is a significant financial commitment. According to New York Life, parents can spend over $23K in that first year alone! The American healthcare system isn't making it any easier either.
A new mom shared the hospital bill showing how much it cost to give birth.
In Kosuga's video, she explained that the total cost for her to give birth was $44,318.41. She had her son around three weeks ago, and the hospital wasted zero time making sure she and her husband got the bill for the entire labor and delivery process.
Going through all of the charges on her bill, Kosuga said she had a normal birth with an epidural and there were no complications. She was in the hospital for a total of two days. While her insurance did cover some of the costs, it didn't mean that Kosuga wasn't forced to dig into her own pockets to cover the rest.
"A private one-bed, room and board, was $10,100. Pharmacy was $89.40. Laboratory was $859. My epidural was $1,845. Labor room and delivery was $10,275. Speciality services was $585, and then the other service was $1,347. And that's just one bill," Kosuga said.
She pointed out that there were multiple other bills she received. Her insurance did cover $20,353.62 of the bill, but she also still has to pay the doctor who delivered her baby, which was $4,390.85. That's after insurance. She pointed out that she's not sure how much it would've been without insurance, but considering the state of the American medical system and healthcare, definitely outrageously expensive.
"I did get another epidural bill, and this is just for your doctor, not for the epidural itself," she continued. "That is $2,060.06."
The mom also received a bill for her newborn son.
The bill for her son came out to $12,761.30. The final price was without insurance, as Kosuga explained that she and her husband are still waiting for that to be processed, so for now, that's the cost.
"If you're curious on how much we pay for insurance for our family of five now, it's $2,500 a month. We originally were paying $2,138.38 just for the four of us," she said. "That is how much it costs to give birth in America. Crazy."
Jimmy Conover | Unsplash
It's no wonder that a growing number of young people are choosing not to have children. A 2023 Pew Research Center survey found that over half of adults ages 18 to 34 without children said they are interested in having them. However, for those who said they didn't want to have children, their reasoning boiled down to the price. It's just way too expensive to have a child in this country.
The Trump administration has proposed giving mothers $5,000 to encourage them to have more kids.
It seems the current president has "concepts of a plan" when it comes to increasing the number of Americans having children. The fertility rate in America has declined overall since 2007, hitting a historic low in 2023 before plateauing in 2024.
In April, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration is heavily invested in encouraging more women to have babies, including giving mothers $5,000 in cash after they give birth and government-funded classes on menstrual cycles. However, a measly $5,000 would barely cover even a portion of a hospital bill.
On top of that, women don't need a cash incentive to have a baby. Instead, they need more government support when it comes to the cost of childcare, more research being done into the maternal mortality rates, especially for Black women, and funding for places like Planned Parenthood.
There's no reason that having a baby should cost nearly the amount that many new parents are being asked to pay, and it's a reminder that having a baby is truly an investment that many people simply cannot afford.
Nia Tipton is a staff writer with a bachelor's degree in creative writing and journalism who covers news and lifestyle topics that focus on psychology, relationships, and the human experience.
