This common medical event leaves women in debt

Having a baby isn’t cheap, but sometimes, even the delivery alone can be a crushing burden on families. 

According to a new survey, even moms who are insured can end up saddled with medical debt that adds to the financial stress of growing a family. What To Expect, a website that provides new and expecting parents with resources, surveyed 3,285 women on their experiences with labor and delivery charges. The research found that one in four moms have gone into debt due to the costs associated with giving birth. The survey found that, on average, moms are leaving the hospital with around $3,000 in debt. 

And that’s before the baby expenses—diapers, formula, daycare!—start piling up. 

According to the respondents, even women with insurance are ending up with hefty tabs from the hospital. Almost half (48%) with self-purchased insurance plans say they’ve gone into debt due to the costs. Almost a third (32%) of moms with employer-provided plans had the same experience. Furthermore, 18% of moms with Medicaid ended up with debt from out-of-pocket labor and delivery expenses, even though Medicaid is designed for low-income families.

While worrying about how you might pay off a rather large and unexpected hospital bill is something a lot of families aren’t prepared for, new moms have another consuming task (aside from trying to figure out how to care for a new human 24/7): the weight of deciding when to go back to work. Given there is no federally mandated maternity leave that ensures moms have time to rest, recover, and bond with their new babies in the U.S., for many, a return to work happens quickly. 

According to a 2024 report from the Policy Center for Maternal Mental Health, one in four new mothers go back to work just 10 days after giving birth out of financial necessity. 

Aside from the strain on their bodies, which are still recovering, that early return isn’t great for new moms’ mental health, either. Women who return to work before the 12-week mark are at an increased risk for developing postpartum mental health challenges, like postpartum depression, according to a 2021 study from Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Women who have at least 12 weeks of paid leave were 30% less likely to report depressive symptoms, the study found. 

In most other countries, returning to work almost immediately is practically unheard of. In fact, the U.S. practically stands alone in its lack of mandated leave for new mothers. On average, moms receive 19 weeks of paid maternity leave, according to a 2023 study of Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, including the United States. The United States is the only country of OECD’s 38 member countries that does not guarantee any paid maternity leave. 

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