Wrapping up the cost of postpartum healthcare

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Back in January this year, I wrote about the true costs of healthcare for babies and mothers: the costs the public system doesn’t cover. I posed the question of just how much the cost of post-partum care could amount to, in the year after giving birth.

In eight days’ time, Olive will turn 1! And what a year it has been, for both our healthcare needs and the costs that the public system couldn’t cover: the financial costs, the costs of our time, and the mental and emotional stress of it all.

Doctors have told me that this year has been exceptionally difficult for people with young children and babies: post-Covid, all of the illnesses have crept back into the country, and as people have dropped wearing masks, illnesses have spread rapidly. That combined with having Covid, which could have weakened our immune systems, has been a recipe for illness after illness.

So I checked out my online medical records and bank statements to estimate just how much we have visited the doctor this year. What has it all amounted to?

Me:

  • 9 GP visits, for post-pregnancy or breastfeeding related issues; including respiratory viruses and resulting antibiotics. Doesn’t include cost of prescriptions: $489.00

  • 1 visit to the after-hours doctor (for muscle injury after exercising, relating to c-section): $60

  • 1 visit to a physiotherapist for that muscle strain: $120.00

    Total cost: $669.00

According to healthcare professionals I’ve seen this year, people are finding it so difficult to see their GP because of time and cost access: a lack of appointments and the cost of them. This is pushing people to go to their emergency department. The ED is then discharging people to go back to the GP for follow-up, but the GPs have no appointments… it’s a vicious cycle. I experienced this myself, after getting hit with a bad chest infection after having Covid. I had to wait 4 hours at the ED with Olive and I gave up and decided to book in with my Dr. I couldn’t get an appointment for two days. I got so sick with the infection it took several days to recover from it since I had to wait so long to get started on antibiotics. I also would’ve liked to have had a repeat visit with the physiotherapist I saw, but the cost of it put me off.

The original blog I wrote on the cost of having Olive’s tongue tie corrected began this conversation about the cost of healthcare. Seeing those specialists turned out very well – having the tongue tie corrected quickly meant that I’ve been able to breastfeed Olive for almost an entire year. That’s a privilege, considering how difficult breastfeeding can be. If I’d had to wait several days in the public system, I wouldn’t have been able to continue.

What about Olive’s costs?

  • 2 visits to lactation consultants $263.00 + $65.00

  • All of Olive’s GP visits were free, which is a wonderful policy and lucky as there were about a dozen of them!

    Total cost: $328.00

So all up, $3 shy of $1000. I thought it was going to be more than that, but that is definitely a heap of money. If we want to prioritise maternal health care in New Zealand, one of the best ways would be to reduce those costs. The health of a mother and child are inextricably linked. One influences the other. So if we can provide mostly free care for babies, why not mothers, especially in that first year postpartum?

Thanks for reading my blog this year. I want to write more next year, now that I’ve finished studying and gotten through a jam-packed 2022. Here’s to a healthier 2023!