We all know that having children is expensive, but did you know that having your child in the United States can cost up to triple or quadruple the price as other developed countries? Pregnancy care and delivery costs have nearly tripled in the United States since 1996 and now range anywhere from $4,000 to $45,000. Gerard Anderson, an economist at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health who specializes in international health costs said, “It’s not primarily that we get a different bundle of services when we have a baby, it’s that we pay individually for each service and pay more for the services we receive.” Paying “more” is an understatement. In the United States, the cumulative cost of nearly four million annual births exceeds $50 billion dollars.
These astronomical prices hit families hard, especially when maternity is not covered by many private insurance plans. Data from 2011 conclude that 62% of women covered by private insurance plans in the United States lacked maternity coverage. Even when women do have maternity coverage on their plans, they are slammed by higher copayments and deductibles. From 2004 to 2010, the prices that insurers paid for childbirth rose 49% for vaginal births and 41% for Caesarean sections in the United States. It’s hard to imagine that merely 20 years ago insured mothers typically paid nothing more than a nominal fee if they opted for a private hospital room or a television.
While childbirth costs have skyrocketed in the United States, other developed countries continue to keep comprehensive maternity care cheap or even free. Why is there such a large discrepancy? The reason is that the United States bills item by item instead of charging a flat fee for the care of an expectant mother, like in other countries. Some hospitals are starting to catch on and offer all-inclusive rates for pregnancy, but this is difficult to standardize across the United States, as birthing costs differ by geographic location. Luckily, the Affordable Care Act will mandate maternity coverage so that no expectant mother should be left paying entirely on her own, but the law is not clear about what aids are included in this coverage. Expectant parents should be excited about expanding their families, not worried about their latest $900 bill for an ultrasound. However, being aware of these financial burdens will help families make wiser choices about their healthcare to protect their loved ones.
Source: The New York Times
When a woman goes through menopause before age 40, it’s considered 
Recent data from the Treatment Episode Data Set reveal that 4.8% of female substance abuse admissions (between the ages of 15 to 44) are pregnant at the time of entry. While this percentage has remained fairly stable since 2000, the percentage of these pregnant women reporting drug abuse has increased to 63.8%, an increase of almost 13% since 2000. Non-pregnant female admissions in the same age range reveal a similar pattern for drug use, while percentages for both groups reporting alcohol abuse has decreased. The report published by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) writes that these trends “may highlight the need to focus greater attention on addressing drug abuse among this population.”
Policy changes are necessary to decrease the death rate of pregnant women in developing countries. Research, according to Dr. Stacie E. Geller, does not end once scientists publish. The true battle is implementing that research to affect global change. Dr. Stacie E. Geller, Director of the Center for Research on Women and Gender at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine, puts research into practice by providing safe, affordable medication to pregnant women in developing countries. Dr. Geller spoke last week at a forum held at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine and presented her research on Postpartum Hemorrhaging (PPH) and its dangers to women in developing countries.
Women who take valproate (Depacon) during pregnancy may increase the risk of childhood autism and its spectrum disorders in their children, a population-based study showed.
Women who are obese at the start of their pregnancy may be passing on insufficient levels of vitamin D to their babies, according to a new Northwestern Medicine® study. The study found that babies born to lean mothers had a third higher amount of vitamin D compared to babies born to obese moms.
On Tuesday, December 18th the 
Heavy drinking during pregnancy disrupts proper brain development in children and adolescents years after they were exposed to alcohol in the womb, according to a study supported by the National Institutes of Health. The study is the first to track children over several years to examine how heavy exposure to alcohol in utero affects brain growth over time.
The rising rates of diabetes during pregnancy was explored in a new study reported at a recent Obesity Society meeting. Kelly Hunt, PhD, Medical University of South Carolina reported that the estimated rate of diabetes during pregnancy (combining gestational a pre-pregnancy diabetes) increased from 5% to 8.7% among white women and from 5.7% to 9.7% among black women.