For a mother, there is no greater feeling than holding her newborn child in her arms for the first time. But one Reddit user says a hospital charged his wife $40 for that feeling.
Reddit user “halfthrottle” shared his wife’s medical bill on the site, a bill that included a $39.35 charge for “skin to skin (contact) after c sec”.
The thread provoked outrage from a number of Reddit users.
“You guys. This is ridiculous. You're the only country in the developed world who doesn't have state-funded health care services. How you can't seem to think this is a basic human right is beyond me,” one comment read.
“Everyone is complaining about the $39.35 to hold the baby, I'm over here wondering why you almost had to pay $13k to give birth?” another commenter said.
I had to pay $39.35 to hold my baby after he was born.
One Reddit user claiming to be a labor and delivery nurse offered some insight to the charge. The Redditor says that allowing mothers to hold their baby in the operating room after a c-section is a fairly new procedure — in the past, babies were quickly whisked off to the nursery to make sure everything was OK. When mothers ask to hold their babies right away, it “requires a second Labor and Delivery RN to come in to the OR and make sure the baby is safe.”
The man who shared the bill says he doesn’t blame the hospital.
“The nurse let me hold the baby on my wife's neck/chest. Even borrowed my camera to take a few pictures for us. Everyone involved in the process was great, and we had a positive experience. We just got a chuckle out of seeing that on the bill.”
Alex Hider is a writer for the E.W. Scripps National Desk. Follow him on Twitter @alexhider.
