Pregnant with no Health Insurance

I have to say, it is really scary being pregnant with no health insurance. I was at my first job out of college and was going to get health insurance after 90 days when I found out I was pregnant. We did try so it was not a shock but it was a shock to lose my job a month later. As most people know, you can not just go out and buy health insurance when you are pregnant. It is considered a pre-existing condition and therefore you have to wait nine months to have it covered. I don’t know about you, but being as I am human, my pregnancy did not last more then nine months. I went though my entire pregnancy without health insurance but in the end, it turned out that I could have gotten state insurance at some point. So I will go over my advice for having to go though everything with no insurance. In a few weeks I will go over how to get state insurance and how to deal with a high risk pregnancy with no health insurance.

1. Midwife, midwife, midwife – These wonderful women are a life saver for those with no health insurance If you are having a normal or even slightly abnormal pregnancy, you need to pick up the phone book, look though the internet, ask your friends, or call your local birth center and find yourself a midwife. My midwife cost me $3000 for everything. This includes all appointments, the birth and well baby check ups. The only thing it does not include is lab tests because the lab will charge their own fee for that. Depending on where you live, midwife care will run you from $2000-$5000. An OB costs much more then that and they nickel and dime you for everything. My friend got charged $10 for every stick she had to pee on to see if there was protein in her urine (which they do at every appointment). For me that was included in my midwife’s fee. You will also get much more personal care from a midwife. All of my appointments were an hour long and I never had to wait more then 5 minutes. Midwives are used to seeing patients with no health insurance so they will set up a payment plan and some give cash pay discounts if you pay by a certain date. They will normally go anywhere to help you give birth, hospitals, birth centers or your home. I should note that you want to see a midwife with her own practice, not a group of midwives or midwives under an OB.

2. Do I really need that? – You need to always be asking that question of yourself. You are going to have to do your research and find out what tests you are going to do, and what you are going to skip. Ask yourself questions like “Do I really need to get a blood test to tell me that I am pregnant?” Remember, you can refuse anything and you have to pay for every test out of your own pocket. Most of the tests midwives give are very cheap ($20-$70) and most midwives will respect your wishes to do only what is necessary. My midwife knew I had to pay for everything so we would discuss it first and then I would decide if I wanted it done. Most OBs on the other hand, do not know what anything costs and will run as many tests as they can. They do not know you have no insurance and will not remember if you tell them. To give an example, I refused the blood test they do for downs syndrome and the other two diseases, but did get the glucose test done.

3. Ultrasounds – It seems like I hear so many woman that get these done all the time. I am sorry to break it to you but unless you want to spend a lot of money, I would recommend you skip all but the 20 week ultrasound. At 20 weeks, a good tech will be able to tell if anything is wrong. Some women go without them all together and that is fine too. Your midwife will listen to the baby’s heart beat with a Doppler and will measure your belly to see how big the baby is. From what I have seen, these measurement are often more accurate then ultrasounds anyways. You don’t really need an ultrasound unless your provider thinks there is something wrong. I did pony up the $150 to see my son at 20 weeks. My husband had heart problems as a baby so we wanted to get a good look at my son’s heart to see if it was normal. It was and we found it was a boy which was great too.

4. Stay Healthy – I know that we all want our babies to be healthy but it really is important to take good care of yourself especially when you don’t have insurance. The healthier you are, the fewer tests you have to do and the less likely you will have to get special (really expensive) care for you and your child. So get out and get some exercise and try to keep the sweets to a normal amount. I know you feel like a whale but it is so worth it. My midwife said that she would start to see problems for some women that gained more then 50 lbs. I gained exactly 50 lbs and was fine.

5. Consider a home birth or birth center – I know that is seems crazy but if you are having a normal healthy pregnancy, you really should consider one of these options. You home is completely free and a birth center (if you are lucky enough to have one around) is much cheaper then going to the hospital. I had a wonderful home birth and even if I have insurance next time I have a child, I am going to plan on another one. It was so wonderful to not have to travel while I was in labor and to only have people I knew and was comfortable with coming in and out of my room. I got to labor any way I wanted to with no IV or monitors. I pushed my son out in my own time with no one rushing me or threatening me with a C-section, vacuum, or anything else. If you do your research, you will find that homebirths with a good midwife for normal women are just as safe if not safer then hospital births. After the birth of my son I started to hemorrhage, my wonderful midwife took complete care of me. She had IV’s, pitocin, and other things that stopped the bleeding and stabilized me. Midwives are prepared for the most common sorts of complications. Birth centers are great too. They are set up like hotel rooms to birth in. They do have some medial equipment if you need it but it is no in sight.

I got though my entire pregnancy paying about $3500 for everything. It came out to be $3000 for the midwife and about $500 for tests and my one ultrasound. I think that is pretty good considering that the average healthy birth (not including pregnancy care or well baby care) cost about $12000 in a hospital. I hope that this helps someone. Please feel free to ask questions if you have them. I did a lot of research when I was pregnant so I might be able to help.

No Health Insurance

First of all, having no health insurance sucks. My family has been in this situation many times. It seems like every time my husband gets hurt, we are between insurances. I even went though my whole pregnancy with no insurance of any kind. So it is safe to say that I have become well versed in dealing with this sad situation (that really no one should have to go though in a civilized country but I will not go in to that). I will present some ideas for dealing with this situation. Today’s entry will deal with general no insurance and the next entry will deal with having no insurance though a pregnancy.

1. When you get to the hospital, tell everyone you see that you have no insurance until you can speak to someone who can help you. Unless of course you are physically unable to do this, then have a loved one do it for you. Do not leave without speaking to someone that deals with people with no insurance. They are sort of like hospital social workers and their job is to help the hospital get paid. They know the fastest way to do this is not though you. These people will hook you up with the right forms and phone numbers to help you get financial aid (yes they have this for hospitals) to help you pay your bills. Depending on your income and how many other uninsured people the hospital treats that month, you can get your bill reduced or even eliminated all together.

2. If you are home from the hospital and are looking in shock at the huge bill they have sent you, pick up the phone and call the billing people. Tell them you have no insurance and they will connect you to the people you need to speak to.

3. If you have all ready been denied financial aid or your bill is not from a hospital, ask for the cash pay discount. All hospitals, doctors, and ambulances have a cash pay discount of anywhere from 10-40% if the bill is paid within 30 days. I found out that putting a big hospital bill on my credit card with 10% interest was worth getting 40% off my bill.

4. If you have lost or quit a job within 2 months that offered you COBRA after you left but you did not take it because it cost too much, get out that paper work. We all know that for the most part, COBRA is joke because most people can not afford it. Well a little known fact is that if you get hurt within the first 2 months of the job loss, you can get coverage by paying the back months premiums. Whatever they would have covered when you had the job, they will cover now. When my husband got hurt and had to be in the hospital for three days ($12,000!) the hospital paid for the first months premium for us. Then we just had to pay the current month. For us, $360 was much cheaper then paying the whole bill. You can stop paying the premium whenever you are done getting the care you need. Then on top of all that, the hospital forgave the deductible we owed. I do not know if this is unique to my state of Washington or if it is everywhere.

5. Think positive. Pray if you are the praying type. I know people think that is silly but let me tell you it is worth a try. First of all, you are already in some kind of physical distress so you don’t need to go stressing yourself out, and second of all it is free so give it a try. It has worked for me many times. We have no outstanding dept from any of the many times we have needed medical care and had no insurance.

Anyone else have to go though a medical situation without insurance? What are your tips?

Uncommon Breastfeeding Tips

There are a ton of books written on breastfeeding, as well as classes and even lactation specialists that will help you get a good latch or up your milk supply but there are a few tips that no one seems to mention before the baby comes. I found that knowing this information first, helped me continue to nurse my son (he is 9 months now) even though some challenging times. We all know that breast is best and all of that. Best of all in my opinion is that fact that breast is free! That is what makes it worth seriously considering if the whole better for the baby thing does not swing you.

First of all a myth – Breastfeeding hurts like a monkey biting you (I really did read this from a book written by a mom) Fact: Come on people, if it really hurt that bad the human race would not have survived in its current form. We would be laying eggs. Done right breastfeeding does not hurt. Your boobs might be sore for a few weeks as you get used to it and your milk comes in but it should not feel like your boob is going to fall off. If it hurts that bad, see a lactation consultant. Another myth – Formula feeding is easier. Fact: This depends on the mom. For working moms I would think they are right because pumping is rather tricky, for stay at home moms it is much easier to stick a boob in the baby’s mouth then getting up and making a bottle. There is also less stuff to haul around with you when traveling.

There are a lot of assumptions that women make when they decide to breastfeed. One assumption that should not be made is that your child’s pediatrician will help you if you have questions or problems with breastfeeding. This is not usually true. Unless the pediatrician is also a lactation specialist or has one on staff they are probably not experts on breastfeeding. Most pediatricians are what I call fair weather breastfeeding supporters. They will happily support you breastfeeding your baby as long as there are no problems. As soon as there is a problem, they say supplement with formula. Even if the problem is fairly minor, they are interested in the over all health of the child, not the extra benefits of breastfeeding to your child and your checkbook. When my son was not gaining well at his 6 month appointment, the pediatrician told me to supplement with formula. He told me that this was the easiest thing to do. Easy for him maybe but not for me. I ignored him and simply gave my son more breast milk (by offering him the boob more often) and more solids. He is doing great now, no formula needed. This doctor did not even think there was another option. If you are committed to breastfeeding, you may have to do your own research to solve your problems. Pediatricians are not the best resource.

Another thing that many new moms (even me) do not know is that just because your baby does not latch well when he is born does not mean that he will not get the hang of it possibly even weeks later. I belong to a birth board for the month that my baby was born. There are several women on the board that could not get their babies to latch when they were born. They continued to pump but stopped trying to get the baby to nurse. A few weeks later, they tried to get the baby to nurse and found that the baby had no problems! So if you find that your baby just will not latch when he is born but you kept pumping, giving nursing a try a few weeks later. Of course this will not work for all babies but it is worth giving a try. A lot of new moms wonder if their baby is getting enough milk and will offer a bottle after nursing and then if the baby drinks it, assume that the baby is not getting enough milk. Babies love to suck. That is why pacifiers are so popular. A website that explains this better is kellymom.com. That website saved me so much grief. Over all I would say to give nursing a try, and don’t feel guilty if it does not work out. I welcome any other unknown tips to help women that want to breastfeed.

Ode to my Diva cup

**Warning: This entry deals with gross TMI topics.**

I love my Diva Cup. It has to be the smartest $30 I have ever spent. But I have not always been a convert; no I am a very recent devotee of the Cup. It all started when I was reading a chat board and came across some posts about Diva Cups. I had no idea what this was so I looked it up on Metacrawler. The Diva cup is a menstrual cup made in Canada. It is a small cup (imagine a tulip shape) made of silicone that is put in your vagina to catch menstrual blood. Every 4-12 hours (depending on flow) you take it out, dump it in the toilet, wash it in the sink and put it back in. Well this looked interesting but I put it out of my mind and went about my life. Pads were what I have always used and I saw no reason to change.

Then, after I had my son, I stopped in a local store that sold cloth diapers. I came across the Diva Cup. I talked to the store owner who said that she loved hers. I asked how long the cup lasts and she said 10 years. I was amazed. That is 10 years of not having to buy tampons or pads. That makes the $30 worth it. This is what sold me at first, then I started using it. Menstrual cups have a wide learning curve very much like cloth diapers. It took me two and a half full cycles to get the hang if it and no longer need pads at all, but once I got the hang of it, I fell in love. My cycle is fairly even medium flow for 4 days then tapers off. I only need to empty the cup every 12 hours. This is wonderful! I no longer have to change pads in the middle of the night, or when I am out and about at the store or mall. I don’t have to worry when I am at a park with no trash can to put my garbage in. I only think about it when I get up in the morning and before I go to bed. I also love that clean feeling. No more slimy feeling down there. It is as if I am not on my period at all. You may wonder how this is any different from tampons; I hate tampons because they always feel so big to me (even the smallest size), they dry me out, when I take it out it chafes me and I hate when you pee and the string gets wet, so gross. I have none of those problems with a cup. I even cut off the little stem on the bottom of the cup so I don’t feel it at all. I also should point out that you no longer need to worry about carrying extra pads or tampons with you. If you already have the cup in you don’t need to bring anything and if you don’t, the cup is small and comes with a little bag that fits in a purse. Best of all I an reducing my foot print on the earth by reducing the amount of waste I produce.

Now just to be fair, menstrual cups are not a new idea, they have been around since the 1920s. There are many different kinds that come in many different sizes but mostly the same shape. There is one that is made in the US called a Moon Cup. I bought a Diva because that is what the store sold. I don’t like ordering on-line if I don’t have to but you can order any cup, from any country, on-line. I also should point out that the package for the Diva says that it lasts one year. All of the other cups say 10 and I was told the Diva used to say 10 but the health laws in Canada now require them to say 1 year. I see no reason why a silicone cup can’t last 10 years. If you have problems with your cup I would say keep trying and look up any questions on the internet. Diva did not come with very good directions so I had to find my answers on-line but it was worth the effort. My Diva is super easy to use now, super cheap, and I no longer dread that time of the month. I even converted my mom. He he he.

Tips for traveling with baby

There were many good ideas that I came across and implemented in my vacation last October with my six month old. I think the best idea was to bring a sling or carrier with you. It was so nice not to have bring a big stroller or car seat to carry the baby in at the airport and when going sight seeing. We brought my homemade Moby sling. It is just a long piece of fabric so it was light weight and folded up fairly small. My son loves being carried in his sling above all else so it worked very well for us. He has a habit of losing his socks and slippers when we go places so when we were at the airport, he was in full footsie pjs. This way, there were no extra pieces to fall off and get lost.

We stayed with my grandma for the first half of the trip. She does not have any baby items at her house so we were worried that our baby might have to sleep in bed with us. He does not like to be touched when he is sleeping and wakes up if you even get up to go to the bathroom, so I really did not want to have to do that. Luckily my grandma lives in Sun City. They have a free service to rent baby items for up to a week at a time. They had a very nice, clean Pack N Play for us to use during our trip. So before hauling along things like play pens, check to see if the people you are staying with can borrow some items for you. If you are staying in a hotel, you can just ask if they have certain items. They will most likely have a portable crib available to use. I did bring along our Bumbo, which we got at a used baby stuff store for $20. We used it as a high chair and a place for our son to sit when we went out to eat. It is light weight and fit in to our suit case. He can’t sit on his own so the Bumbo was very helpful.

We cloth diaper our son so we just brought the diapers with us. It was cheaper then buying a week and a halfs worth of paper diapers. We just washed them every three days like we do at home and kept the dirties in a trash bag near where he was changed. We were staying with relatives so this was easy to do. I did not bring any jarred baby food because it costs money and he was not eating much solids at the time. When we got to my grandma’s, I found a sweet potato in her fridge and just cooked it up and fed it to him. When we went to my sister in laws, I cooked up some carrots to feed him. It did not cost us a thing. Over all we had a very pleasant trip and can’t wait to go again next year.

Traveling with baby

Traveling with children, especially infants can be very stressful, but with a little planning and a lot of luck, you can have a pleasant trip. We just got back from our first out of state trip with our 6 month old. I have to say it was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. All together we had five plane trips and many long car rides. Our son was great on the planes but not so good during to car rides. He is also teething right now so he did not do so well with sleeping away from home. At home he went from waking up once a night to four times a night. During vacation, he would not go to sleep with out a fight and then woke up every two hours after that. Needless to say, sleep was not something we got much of on our vacation.

To save money, we used an employee pass to go to Phoenix. My husband’s dad works for Alaska Airlines so we were able to do this. It only cost about 10% of the going rate for a ticket. The catch is that you are flying stand-by. I have flow stand-by before and my best advice is to get the first flight out or the last flight out. Those are going to give you the best chances of getting on right away. For our flight, we arrived two hours earlier of the last flight and got right on. There was a woman sitting near us that had been waiting all day to fly stand-by. She could have saved herself a lot of grief if she knew that it is not worth trying for middle of the day flights when you fly stand-by. The only exception to this is if you are an airline employee with a good deal of seniority.

We flew two different airlines to visit all of the family we wanted to see. One was Alaska and the other was Delta. I love Alaska. Very good service, free bags to go over the car seat and Jones soda on the plane. They let families with small children pre-board and don’t mind helping you with your child on the plane. Delta on the other hand was a pain. They charge $5 for a bag (a clear trash bag) to go over your car seat, don’t let families pre-board and are just rather rude over all. After flying with them four times, in four different planes with four different crews, I feel that I can say it was not just someone having a bad day. The worst part about Delta is that they do not let you keep your baby in a sling or carrier when taking off and landing. You have to hold the baby in your arms. I fail to see much difference in the two but I will tell you that I have strict rules against waking sleeping babies. I also have been blessed with the only baby in the world that does not want to sleep in my arms but will sleep in the sling. I was lucky that those flights were not ones that my son wanted to sleep on. Now I know, just stick with the best. Alaska is normally cheaper anyways but we were flying in to a very small airport that Alaska did not fly to.

Cheap Recipes

Here are some quick, cheap, and mostly healthy meal ideas. I have collected these from the backs of cans, my favorite food magazine (Everyday food) and websites (like hillbillyhousewife.com).

Enchiladas (From back of enchilada sauce can)

• 4 tortillas
• 1 can of green or red enchilada sauce
• 1 pound of beef or 1 can of refried beans
• 1 and ½ cup of shredded cheese
• ½ cup of salsa

Heat oven to 350. Heat up beans or cook beef, add 1/3 can of enchilada sauce and ½ cup of salsa to meat or beans. Put equal amounts of beans or meat in the middle of each tortilla and roll up, place tortillas seam side down in pan. Pour the rest of the enchilada sauce on tortillas and sprinkle on the cheese. Cook for 20 min and serve with Spanish rice.

Spanish rice (From Everyday Food magazine)

• 1 cup of rice (I use regular white rice)
• ½ cup of chipped onion
• 1 T. of olive oil
• 1 can of chopped tomatoes or stewed tomatoes
• ½ t. of Thyme
• 2 cups of water
• Salt and pepper to taste

Heat olive oil on med-high until hot, add onions and let brown. Add rice and cook until light brown. Add water, thyme, salt and pepper, and can of tomatoes, get it boiling and then turn down to med-low, cover and let cook for about 10 min. Time will vary so check often.

Garlic chili shrimp, peanut noodles and broccoli (From Everyday Food magazine)

Garlic chili oil

• 6 chopped garlic gloves
• ½ t. red pepper flakes
• 4 T. vegetable oil

• 8 ounces spaghetti
• 2 T. peanut butter
• 2 T. soy sauce
• 1 T. rice vinegar
• 1 T. brown sugar
• ½ pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 ½ pounds of broccoli

Mix up the stuff for the garlic chili oil and set aside. Cook noodles and rinse with cold water. Mix together the peanut butter, soy sauce, vinegar, and brown sugar until smooth. Add to spaghetti and season with salt. Simmer broccoli in a pan with 1 T. of the garlic chili oil with the lid on until done. While this is cooking, mix shrimp with remaining oil. Put the shrimp on a pan and in the oven on broil for 5 min.

Healthier tuna casserole (My own)

• 1 can of Campbell’s Healthy Request cream of mushroom soup
• 1 ½ t. basil
• 1 ½ t. oregano
• 2 cans of tuna (I love Chicken of the Sea, it is chunky)
• 2/3 cup frozen veggies (I use FMV veggie mix because it is cheap and has no lima beans)
• 1 t. pepper
• ½ bag egg noodles
• Sliced or shredded cheddar cheese (enough to cover the top of the bowl)

Heat oven to 400. Cook noodles, while they are cooking mix together tuna, seasonings, veggies, and soup in a med size oven safe bowl. When noodles are done, drain and mix them in the oven safe bowl. Slice or shred cheese and place on top of mixture. Cook in oven until cheese is melted and a little crispy. Should be about 25 min.

Lentil chili (From hillbillyhousewife.com)

• 1-1/4 cups dry lentils (half a pound)
• 4 cups tap water
• 2 tablespoons oil or bacon grease
• 1 to 2 tablespoons dry onions
• 3 beef bouillon cubes
• 15 oz can tomatoes
• 2 teaspoons chili powder
• Dash hot pepper flakes or Tabasco sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Place the lentils and the water in a large pot. Put the pot on the stove and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat so that the lentils are simmering gently. Cook for 30 minutes. Do not add the other ingredients until after the lentils have cooked. If the lentils begin to get dry, or if their water boils away then add more water. You want the lentils to remain juicy while they cook. When your 30 minutes are up, add all of the remaining ingredients. Simmer the chili for 15 to 20 minutes and serve with crackers or cornbread or over rice. Makes 4 servings.

Hoe Cakes (From hillbillyhousewife.com)

• 2 cups boiling water
• 2 cups corn meal
• Any seasoning you like
• 1 tablespoon oil or butter

Boil the water and mix with the corn meal and the seasoning. Heat pan with oil or butter to med-high. Drop ¼ cups of the mix on to the hot pan. Let cook until golden on both sides. Serve with chili or soups of any sort.