Budgeting for Birth and Baby: Podcast Episode #340

Planning for a baby isn’t just about choosing the perfect registry items—it’s about preparing financially for pregnancy, birth, and life with a newborn.  In this solo episode of Ask the Doulas, Kristin Revere of Gold Coast Doulas breaks down what families really need to budget for (and what they don’t).

From prenatal care and delivery costs to postpartum support, baby gear, and those unexpected expenses no one talks about, Kristin shares practical tips to help you feel confident and in control of your finances.  Even with insurance, out-of-pocket costs for birth and postpartum care can add up quickly, making early planning essential.

You’ll learn how to:

• Prioritize your spending for pregnancy, birth, and postpartum
• Build a realistic baby budget without overwhelm
• Decide where to invest (and where to save)
• Plan for both expected and surprise costs
• Create a support system that protects your time, energy, and mental health

Whether you’re newly pregnant or planning ahead, this episode will help you approach this exciting chapter with clarity—not financial stress.

This episode is sponsored by Cozy Earth.  Use the code GOLDCOAST to receive a discount of up to 20 percent off.

Hello, hello!  This is Kristin Revere, and I have a special solo episode for you today.  Our topic is all about budgeting for birth and baby.  In my book, Supported: Your Guide to Birth and Baby that I co-authored with Alyssa Veneklase, we discussed this topic in detail.  For those of you who haven’t yet picked up our book, which I suggest you do – let’s discuss this starting now!

It all led to a bridal expo that we were part of for Gold Coast Doulas where we wanted to get couples who were in the wedding planning stage to think about planning for birth and baby the way you do for planning a wedding, looking at that budget in a very similar way to what you would look at for wedding planning or building a house, even college budgeting – other major life occurrences.  In Supported, we get into looking into your insurance, first of all, and your partner’s insurance, seeing what your priorities would be that are fully or partially covered, as a starting point.  That could be anything from mental healthcare to physical therapy, chiropractic care.  Those may be covered benefits.  Some companies have fitness reimbursements, so if you want to take a prenatal yoga class or do some swimming in pregnancy, you can look through your benefit plans and see what might be included.  For birth and postpartum doula support, there are some fertility focused benefits that cover both birth and postpartum doulas, so that is something to explore.  Those would be Carrot, Progeny, and Maven, as the largest ones.  There are some other self-funded benefit plans that clients have created for themselves.  We worked with Pioneer Construction pre-pandemic to add doulas to their benefits before these fertility benefits even existed.

Some have a set stipend amount for reimbursement.  Some have a benefit package for a specific frame.  Like for Carrot, many companies offer six weeks of day and overnight newborn care and postpartum recovery support.  Some Carrot plans go up to 12 weeks.  So looking through those benefits very closely to see if anything that is on your dream birth and baby budget would be covered for you, and then looking at health savings and flex spending plans to see what you might want to utilize.  Again, chiropractic care, acupuncture, prenatal massage could be some things that you are focused on budgeting for.

Then, going into your baby registry, and whether you work with one of our baby registry consultants at Gold Coast Doulas or hire your own or set up your registry through Target, for example – you can go into not only items that you want to have purchased, like a stroller and a crib and feeding supplies, like bottles and bottle washers – all of the things that you would typically envision putting on a baby registry.  Many registries, like Baby List, for example, allow you to also add services, or there are registries like Tot Squad or Be Her Village that are service-focused registries, in addition to being able to include products.  So looking at all of those options – I love it when our clients register for postpartum doula support.  It may not be in your budget, or maybe your budget is $2,000, but you want support for two months, for example.  So having friends and family gift you support.

Other things to consider either adding to your registry or budgeting for would be a cleaning service or a laundry service, postpartum meal delivery services – anything that would make your life easier.  All of those cute onesies are awesome, but they get ruined with blowouts and the baby outgrows them.  You don’t get the utility that investing in services would give you.  So thinking about what could be paid for by benefits – and Medicaid does cover birth doulas in some states, so that would be fully covered, but general insurance does not.  So looking into those add-on plans.  And then coming up with a budget for not only pregnancy, labor and delivery, but also that postnatal phase and maternity leave and figuring out what all of your areas to focus on in that budget would be.

In a wedding, you’re thinking flowers and photographer and the cake and the reception site, the wedding venue, the dress – all of the things.  So as you’re building your birth and baby registry, it may also include photography.  You may want a birth photographer or videographer.  Or it could be the fresh 24-hour newborn shot or family photos.  There are often babymoons that could be put into the budget, and certainly also thinking about those items that you need to register for when it comes to setting up the nursery.  There are other self-care items; you could have a column just for self-care with things like prenatal massage and postnatal massage, getting your hair done after the birth, looking into acupuncture and other things to relieve stress.  Budgeting for therapy could be something to focus on or childbirth classes or breastfeeding classes.  You could consider gifting your parents or in-laws a grandparents class, like the one we offer from Gold Coast Doulas.

So many things to consider, but think about what your priorities are.  Is sleep your priority?  If so, then hiring a postpartum doula would be one of the first things on that list, and a sleep consultant after that three-month phase when sleep consultants traditionally begin to work.  Some of my clients want to focus more on supporting other children, so it could be getting a budget for entertainment, such as if a friend or family member is going to take them to the zoo so that you can focus on baby.  What is your priority?  If it’s not sleep, is it nutrition in recovery?  Is it feeding support?  Just breaking down the areas for your maternity leave, for pregnancy, for the birth itself.  Maybe you really want some cute photos for the baby book and want to get a special outfit for baby and an outfit for yourself.  I’ve had clients get their hair and makeup done for a newborn shoot at home, and that could be an expense that you’re budgeting for.  It really depends on what your priorities are.  Is having a nanny your biggest priority, or an au pair, or putting money aside for a daycare center when you’re transitioning back to work or your partner is?  What would be the things that would make the biggest difference, not only for you, but your entire family?  Start that process early in pregnancy, of hiring your dream birth and baby team group of experts, interviewing doulas, interviewing anyone who you are involving in care, like a nanny or setting up childcare, even babysitters if you want to plan for date nights.  Who has infant experience?  Who would you trust at home with your child?

When it comes to feeding support, getting pumps and figuring out the bottles that you want to use.  Setting up the nursery for optimal sleep includes considering a sound machine, a baby monitor, black-out shades – all of the things.  So you can, again, register for some of it, look at your benefits for some of it, and then self-pay.  And again, comparing it to a wedding, if your priority is food – maybe it’s food in the postnatal phase.  You could have a nesting party and get your friends together and make really healthy, nourishing food and fill your freezer, or maybe you want to ask for gift cards to some of your favorite healthy restaurants so you can get food delivered.  Maybe it is customized postnatal meal plans.  We have several catering companies in my city that do customized plans based on diet and other factors; you could have a weekly meal delivered to you or available for pick-up.  There are many national services for postpartum moms specifically, and breastfeeding moms, that will send meals to you.  So thinking about what is important to you and what your overall budget is and trying to stay within that budget.  Some areas may not end up being a priority or an area that you want to spend on, so it could be something of a splurge where family members might be able to help you out with other areas like a diaper service, for example.  Certainly, diapers are a big line item on the budget.

So many things to factor in, but I do love bringing up how to think about all of the costs related to pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenting.  Hire early!  I can’t stress that enough as an agency owner, that if you want to budget for birth and baby and think a doula is a worthwhile investment for your birth, or having day or overnight postpartum doulas or a newborn care specialist – budgeting early, calling them, and interviewing and securing them because many of these professionals will require a retainer in advance.  Some require full payment in advance.  So getting that budget set in pregnancy.  And with a doula, once you hit that 12 or 13 week mark, I would be calling a birth doula, and even for postpartum support, it is very hard to fulfill last minute requests.  So if you know you want a postpartum doula, hiring in pregnancy – earlier in pregnancy – is better because some doulas operate solo and don’t have an agency like Gold Coast that could take a last minute request.  Solidifying in your budget when payments are due for the different professionals that you’re hiring that have payment plans, and then looking at the monthly and weekly budget and the budget for, say, six months that would cover birth into early parenting and could include, again, vacations, dinners out for the couple during pregnancy to get some time to focus on the relationship – whatever is a priority to you, communicate early.  Register for services as well as things.  I can’t stress enough to consider this life transition in a way similar to building a house and getting your experts lined up early, interviewing them, and getting trusted recommendations.  Again, priorities: what’s important to you?  Is it sleep?  Is it nourishment?  Is it focusing more on the nursery?

So check out more of our tips on our Substack account, Ask the Doula, or find our book on Audible, Kindle, or your favorite bookstore.  We have paperback and hardcover copies on all online retailers.  Thanks for listening – I look forward to chatting with you soon!

My final words today are invest in your postnatal time, especially.  Take good care!

IMPORTANT LINKS

Birth and postpartum support from Gold Coast Doulas

Becoming A Mother course

Buy our book, Supported