My Tale of 2 Births: Giving Birth in the U.S and a Socialist Country 

Let me tell you a tale of two birth Both beautiful and amazing. One that took place in the US of A One that took place in a nameless country, we’ll call it “Other Country”.

Background

I have two children who were born in two different countries. My husband and I were U.S. Expats living in a country with Universal Healthcare while on a student visa for the second birth, while my first was born in the U.S.

The First Birth

My paretn's insurance covered my pregnancy and childbirth, and part of my baby’s care. The rest was covered by Medicaid (as I was ineligible for insurance through my work and we were low-income enough to qualify for it).

Extra Costs

I vaguely remember signing a consent form soon after birth for this. It turns out that although the hospital was in-network, the nurses were in-network. The hearing test “lab?” was not and therefore not fully covered by insurance. Please remember that we had what was considered to be good insurance. The whole birth ended up costing us a few thousand dollars

The Second Birth

The hospital was not nice and it was very lonely but the care was excellent but it was totally free!

Want to read all about the differences between the two experiences?

Squiggly Line

Click here to read more!