After a mother and father received a bill from the hospital, they were surprised to find out that they were charged for holding their newborn child after he was born.
Reddit user “halfthrottle” posted a picture of the hospital’s billing statement along with the caption: “I had to pay $39.95 to hold my baby after he was born.”
Videos by PopCulture.com
The bill showed several services that you would likely expecting from a Caesarean section with the total coming out to just over $13,000, according to KARE11. Almost everything on the statement seemed normal, then the couple noticed the charge for “Skin to Skin after c-sec.”
The dad explained, “The nurse let me hold the baby on my wife’s neck/chest. Even borrowed my camera to take a few pictures for us. Everyone involved in the process was great, and we had a positive experience. We just got a chuckle out of seeing that on the bill.”
While most Reddit users were shocked by the charge, one nurse (user FiftySixer) offered this explanation for the incident.
“I didn’t know that hospitals charged for it, but doing ‘skin to skin’ in the operating room requires an additional staff member to be present just to watch the baby. We used to take all babies to the nursery once the NICU team made sure everything was okay. ‘Skin to skin’ in the OR is a relatively new thing and requires a second Labor and Delivery RN to come in to the OR and make sure the baby is safe.”
Do you think it was ridiculous for the parents to have to pay for holding their baby immediately after he was born?
[H/T KARE11]
