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The British royal family’s newest member was born in an $8,900-a-night deluxe maternity wing, but it costs even more for Americans to deliver mere commoners.
Prince William and Kate Middleton, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, delivered their third child in a private room in St. Mary’s Hospital’s Lindo Wing. Perks include an “en suite” bathroom, a refrigerator, and a menu of “nutritious” meals (including a comprehensive wine list), according to a brochure about the wing. The wing even offers “exclusive circumcision services” for boy babies.
Sounds posh, but the royal birth was actually cheaper than the average cost of delivering a baby in the U.S., which was $10,800 in 2015, according to figures compiled by The Economist and circulated by Statista. That figure doesn’t include care before and after the birth, which pushes the average cost up to roughly $30,000, The Economist reported.
The United States is in fact the most expensive country in the world to give birth, and the high price tag does little to improve health outcomes for mothers and children, The Guardian reported. Insurers pay for most of the costs, but the average out-of-pocket cost still works out to $3,000, according to The Economist.
And to make matters worse, it can be very difficult for families to get straight answers on how much a delivery will cost, making nearly impossible to comparison shop maternity wards.
But labor and delivery is of course just the first of many financial hurdles American families face.
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If they had regular jobs, Kate Middleton and Prince William would be eligible for 37 weeks of paid parental leave (and up to 50 weeks unpaid) under British law, but American workers have no national paid family leave policy to help them stay afloat financially if they want to take time off work after the birth of a baby.
And for many American families, the cost of child care eats up more money than their rent or mortgage payment.