How Do I Get “Baby Bargains for Clothes, Furniture, Toys and More? » Birth

Hospital Goody Bags

Josh — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:00:37 +0000

Before leaving the hospital look on the baby cart your baby was wheeled around in. You’ve been charged for everything so take anything that’s left including diapers, sanitary pads, witch hazel pads, peri-bottles, sprays, formula samples and Vaseline tubes if your boy was circumcised. If you are not nursing ask your discharge nurse for extra formula samples

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Newborn Photographs

Josh — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 13:00:51 +0000

We are the sentimental type that like to compare our own hospital pictures to that of our parents and of our own newborns so we had to buy the newborn hospital pictures. But don’t get carried away, especially if you deliver in a smaller hospital where the nurse takes the picture instead of a professional. Buy an individual photo or a small package if they are really good. Otherwise take your own on a digital camera and take them to Wal-mart or Sam’s Club to get quality prints instead of printing on your home inkjet

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Baby Feet and Hand Print Sets

Josh — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:24:46 +0000

Unless you receive one of these ink kits where you can make hand and feet prints for your baby book, don’t go out and buy one. Save your money and use the hospital ink. The nurse will gladly make extra sets for you. If you want them in your baby book bring extra pages because those little newborns don’t particularly like making prints and are likely to squirm and smudge and require more than one attempt to get a good set. Our hospital made extra prints for us on something that looked like large address labels so we could peel and stick them where we wanted in the baby book and avoid messing something up when baby squirms.

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Shopping for D-livery Day

Josh — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 13:00:57 +0000

When it comes to shopping and packing for your hospital stay ignore the lists from books. You will waaay over pack. Talk to other moms for advice. You’ll need toiletries and an outfit to go home in. Beyond that, the hospital takes care of most everything else. Use their gowns for labor, delivery and recovery. If you are very modest you might feel more comfortable throwing on a robe for when visitors come. But don’t concern yourself with getting nightgowns that might get stained or special (aka expensive) ones especially for nursing.

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Bring Your Own Pills

Josh — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 13:00:32 +0000

Have you ever been to a ball game or amusement park and bought the food? They have you locked into their venue and know you will need food so they ratchet the prices up very high. The hospital does the exact same thing with all those pills they give you while in the hospital for the birth of your baby. They know you aren’t going to get up during post-delivery recovery and run to Wal-Mart to get ibuprofen so they chargeyou a bundle. When we got the itemized bill for our first child in 2006 we were amazed at the charges for things like $8.80 for ibuprofen, $1.60 for each vitamin, and $2.20 for stool softener. The second time around in 2008 we brought our own ibuprofen, pre-natal vitamins and Wal-Mart brand stool softener. We still got dosage amounts from the nurse and showed them what we brought, but saved a lot of money over the 3 days by taking our own.

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Review Hospital Bills, Find Errors, Save Money

Josh — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 15:21:55 +0000

After the birth of your baby you will receive a bill from the hospital with a balance due after insurance. Instead of blindly paying this amount call the number on the bill and request an itemized listing. According to http://www.maternityadvantage.com more than 90% of hospital bills have errors. When you get your itemized listing of charges go through it, find the errors, contact the financial office to have them removed, and then pay what’s left.

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Pregnant and no (or not enough) Maternity Insurance Part 3 of 3

Josh — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 13:00:57 +0000

Finally, if you are having a healthy, normal pregnancy consider using a birthing center instead of a hospital. The average cost of prenatal care and delivery via a birthing center is about half that of a hospital. Birthing centers offer similar payment plans and sliding scales that hospitals offer. Some are even attached to the local hospital so that in the unlikely event of an emergency, mother can be quickly moved to the hospital. Clearly, this isn’t for everyone. Many people chose this option to have a more natural birth as opposed to the financial benefits. To read more about this and search for a birthing center in your area go here
http://americanpregnancy.org/labornbirth/birthingcenter.html

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Pregnant and no (or not enough) Maternity Insurance Part 2 of 3

Josh — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 13:00:32 +0000

Consider other maternity plans that are not true insurance. Because they are discount plans instead of insurance, pre-existing conditions do not matter so you can apply even when pregnant. The top plan specializing in maternity coverage is Maternity Advantage (http://www.maternityadvantage.com). Another source that offers broader coverages, but slightly smaller discounts for pregnancy can be found http://www.ameriplan.com. Another interesting concept is one in which the total bill for all members is equally divided so you help pay when others need it most and they help when you need it. The idea is that you end up paying far less than a traditional insurance plan. This can be found here http://www.medi-share.org.

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Pregnant and no (or not enough) Maternity Insurance Part 1 of 3

Josh — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:00:04 +0000

If you cannot afford maternity coverage, your maternity coverage isn’t very good, or are already pregnant and therefore cannot add maternity coverage, here is the first of my top 3 suggestions for ways to find baby bargains for maternity and delivery. Talk to the hospital financial office. Many hospitals offer payment plans or even sliding scales based on your income. Most people don’t even know they are available so they are not often utilized.

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Short-term Disability for Maternity Leave

Josh — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:48:53 +0000

I’ve decided to experiment with a daily tip posted to my blog. Some of this has been discussed in some form probably close to a year ago. I’m just going to start at the beginning and share various bargain tips and advice. Here’s today’s tip…

Talk to your employer about adding short-term disability insurance prior to getting pregnant. Many work-based policies cover 6 weeks for vaginal delivery and 8 weeks for c-section if you deliver 10 months after taking out the policy. This works for normal, healthy pregnancies and is not sickness, complication, or emergency based. But it is also good to have in place if you do end up with complications prior to delivery and for example get put on bed rest. They are fairly inexpensive and if you add this policy right before getting pregnant you will definitely come out ahead. These plans often pay in addition to any sick or vacation time you have saved up so this is great extra help to pay for hospital bills. The bad news is that if you are already pregnant it is probably too late.

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