How much does it cost to have a baby?
It depends a great deal on where you live, who delivers the baby, where the baby is delivered, and whether there are complications. Prenatal medical care may run around $2000. A home birth with no assistance is obviously pretty cheap but very risky - especially if there are complications. Having a home birth with some expert assistance like a midwife or doula usually requires paying something. Some birthing centers are cheaper than hospitals. Having an obstetrician is usually more expensive than a nurse-midwife, but they are also usually better prepared to deal with emergencies. The charge for an uncomplicated vaginal birth cost was about about $9,600 in 2008; an uncomplicated cesarean section was about $15,800.
High-risk pregnancies can have costs that go through the roof - if the mother has life threatening complications or the baby has birth defects the cost can escalate quickly. In extreme cases the cost can exceed a million dollars if you include the care required to save the life of the mother or baby (REAALLYY extreme with severe life threatening complications like hypoplastic left-heart).