She's On The Money - It Costs How Much To Have a Baby, Now?!

Episode Date: July 7, 2026

GP appointments, vitamins, and not to mention the added snack budget; having a baby sounds expensive. So, we asked our very own VD just how much it cost her… with receipts. This week’s Deep Dive episode unpacks the costs associated with having a baby in modern times. Victoria shares receipts and line items from weeks 4 till 40, with a trimester-by-trimester breakdown of exactly how much she spent, how far the Medicare rebates went and whether private health insurance provided enough coverage throughout. If you’ve been thinking about family planning or simply wanted to compare notes on out-of-pocket costs, this is the episode for you (or the parent-to-be in your life). GET OUR BABY BUDGET: Budgeting for a new arrival? Grab ours. READ THE BLOG: Check out our write-up on things to consider when preparing for a baby. RETHINKING YOUR INSURANCE? Check out our playlist devoted to choosing the right insurances for you. New here? Follow us on Instagram (@shesonthemoneyaus) for Q&As, bite-sized advice, daily money inspo... and relatable money memes that just get you.  Acknowledgement of Country By Nartarsha Bamblett (nartarshabamblett.com.au) The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs. Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 4451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

She's on the money. She's on the money. My name's Natasha Bamblett. I'm a proud First Nations woman and I'm here to acknowledge country. Hello, beautiful friends. We gather on the lands of the Aboriginal people. We thank, acknowledge and respect the Aboriginal people's land that we're gathering on today.

Take pleasure in all the land and respect all that you see. She's on the money podcast, acknowledges culture, country, community and connections, bringing you the tools, knowledge and resources for you to thrive. Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast where we discuss all issues affecting your personal wealth goals so that you can feel more in control of your financial future. My friends, I'm Victoria Devine and today's episode is a topic very close to my heart. Literally, we are talking about babies, specifically my babies. They're adorable, they are life-changing, they are really expensive. While so many of us have gone through the process

of having kids, how many of us have actually stopped to track every single cost that you've occurred along the way? I'm talking about the preconception care, supplements, and all of those sneaky out-of-pocket costs that add up in the end. So I have brought in my very own receipts. call me delusional, but I tracked every single cost during my pregnancy with Campbell down to the fruit tingles that I was having for my nausea. Plus, I'm going to share with you exactly what it cost me to have Campbell, plus some things that I would think that you probably should consider for your own budget if you're thinking about having your own kids. Because while people are very quick to ask, oh my gosh, are you planning on having kids or are you going to have them soon? Here

is my reminder that you need to do what is right for you. So tune in at your own pace. And if you need to skip this episode because you just don't care about baby costs or it's a topic that you just don't want to have in your ears right now, girlfriend, I will catch you on the next episode. But before I pull out my calculator and add up all of the numbers, which honestly shocked me as well, we're going to be taking a really quick break. And when we return, I'm going to give you a trimester by trimester breakdown of my baby bill to the cent. My friends, welcome back to our baby crazed episode that no one else in the She's On The Money team agreed to be on. They were like, V, this is one that you've got to riff for yourself because we would just be shocked and

in awe. I'm going to share what is essentially an itemized breakdown of everything I spent while having my most recent or my youngest child, my daughter Campbell. Full disclosure, I do have private health cover and I did go through the private health or the private hospital system, right? So my costs might actually be significantly higher than if you went through the public system, which honestly is a fact. We know it's going to be more expensive because in Australia, We do have an incredible public system, and I would implore people to definitely lean on that. I also am currently working to get a money diarist and a whole public system diary on

for you guys so that we can kind of compare and contrast. And the reason I'm sharing this is honestly in transparency. It's not because I think that you should also spend this, but it's because I want you to feel really empowered about making decisions and know where things could add up for you or areas that you might go v i would never spend the money on that and that is totally okay but please understand that this is my experience i'm not talking to the experience of everybody i'm talking to the experience that i had and the costs that i have incurred there's another caveat i want to point out as well that i have taken into consideration and that is that you are also

going to typically need to have not you do need but if you want to go through the private system you need. You need to have your private health coverage for at least 12 months before you can even use the services that you will need during pregnancy. So right off the bat, let's add monthly private health cover to the tally board. My private health cover is $402.60 per month for 12 months, plus the nine months during my pregnancy, which brings us up to a total of $6,905.40 sense before we even start talking about costs for pregnancy. So that's just my private health cover. The other thing I want to point out is that most private health insurers will not let you have access to obstetric care with their base private health cover. So you have to have like usually

their gold cover or usually their gold plus hospital or something along those lines. So the cover I have feels really expensive but for the mums who maybe have already looked into this you know that you have to have the top level of cover to get obstetric care and the thing that I am now questioning because my husband and I Campbell is now nearly four months old or just over four months actually terrifying we've said let's just leave the baby conversation until Campbell's at least one before we even talk about whether we want three babies or not and after I did this episode, I am now seriously considering just getting rid of the private health cover and paying for the base level and just paying out of pocket potentially for my hospital stay if we

decided to go through the private system again. Anyway, back on track, I did some research. In 2021, Westpac reported that the average Australian family spends $7,918 setting up for a new baby and then approximately $600 per month once that baby arrives. Now, I remember using that report back in an article in 2024, but I've also almost hit that threshold for my private health cover alone. So like, let's see if that stat holds up still in 2026. Okay, let's go back to preconception because one thing that I think is important is to take the whole journey into consideration when we're talking about finances a lot of people especially when they're wedding planning they just look at the budget for the wedding specifically and they don't add in things like

the bucks or the hen's party or their engagement party or like incidental costs and for me those definitely should be involved because you're going to have to pay for them and sometimes if you don't talk about this they fall out of the budget and then you don't know why you're you know not able to afford things so during the month and we're not going to talk about my history too much but during the month, even before receiving a positive pregnancy test, I had actually spent almost $300 on ovulation tests, medications, and supplements. So now, because I have had a prior history of recurrent miscarriage, one of these medications, what's called utrogestrin, which was essentially a progesterone pill that I had to take to help me maintain a pregnancy from day one. So this might

not be on your list of must-haves, but it was for me. And that roughly cost between $91 and $182 per month throughout the first trimester. The range exists because once I found out I was pregnant, they doubled my cost or they doubled the medication that I was on. So really quick recap, my preconception was $272.76. And that was made up of ovulation tests, which were about $60. Chase Tree Supplements, which were $38.99. I was taking aspirin, and that was $3.84 for the packet. Utrogestrin was $90.99, and that's like a 21-day supply. And then I was taking my prenatal vitamins, which was the Orthoplex Pure Natal 90, and that was $79.95. So we are up to a rolling total of $7,178.16 before I have even gotten into my first trimester of pregnancy. So as soon as I

became pregnant, things only started to ramp up both figuratively and literally because I actually was diagnosed with HG, which is hyperemesis graviatum, which is basically where you experience really horrific nausea and vomiting so much so that you actually need medical intervention so on top of the pregnancy tests the supplements my doctor's appointments I had really specific medications to help me address the nausea so that I could actually absorb nutrients and actually eat and actually function so just running through that list some of the costs incurred during my first trimester included in the first weeks, obviously pregnancy tests from week four to week five. I was doing a fair few of them because I was anxious. So I had seven first response

pregnancy tests at $21.30 and I had seven clear blue pregnancy tests at $38.99 because if you've been in a situation like mine, you do keep testing to make sure that that line gets bluer. I'm not saying that you need to do that, but that's what I was doing. Then week five, I had to have a GP appointment to get my obstetrician referral and some medication. And that came out of the wash at $72 and 42 cents. Then there was some medications. Then by week six, I was on a lot more medication for HG. So I was on, and I won't go through it all, but that kind of came up to being at like $60. The namely or the most expensive medication I had during that period of time was Ondansetron, which is an anti-nausea medication, which is $22 for 10 tablets. I also had to pay

for my six-week obstetric appointment, which was $500. And then I had some electrolytes I have been obsessed with and was drinking Hydra Mama, and that is $39.99 a packet. And then because it's me, guys, I have also included my hospital parking. So my hospital parking in week six was $19. So yeah, just going through that, I'm looking at all of those costs for the first trimester. Again, I'm just replicating more medications, more hospital parking, etc. And then when I came to week 10, there was some big costs there. I had the NIPT test, which my husband and I wanted to do. That was out of pocket and not covered by Medicare. That was $449. And then because I had a private obstetrician, which by the way, you pay for outside of your private hospital and health

cover. And I'm not saying that his fees were bad. They were fine. They were normal, but they were broken up into three different installations. So I had my 10 week obstetric installation and that was two and a half thousand dollars. For the week 11, week 12, we're just looking at hospital parking and medications. So with that in mind, I had then spent a total of $5,002.89 during my first trimester, bringing our rolling total to $12,181.05. Well above the Westpac estimate, mind you. So sitting here and me looking at that amount, it kind of makes you wonder what else someone might spend $5,000 on in three months. But if I gave five grand to any of my friends, I think they'd be like, five grand, great. I could go on a whole holiday. Like imagine what

you could do with 12 grand. I'm not saying it's not worth it. It's just so much money. And I guess that's food for thought. Now rolling on in, we're going to talk about the second trimester. This is where I did start to feel slightly better. I wasn't under the table rocking back and forward, but I was definitely still not well. So we have a lot of medical costs here again. Thankfully, when I did need to go into hospital to do additional fluids or check-ins which I had a lot of during that period of time I was very lucky that my obstetrician has room set up and is kind of in the hospital so that was never an additional cost to like go into hospital but for some people it could be but from week 13 I had to do or didn't have to do it was recommended to do my

13-week anatomy scan, and that wasn't done at my obstetrician. That was done externally, and that was $430, and I got $114.65 back on my Medicare rebate. Week 14 was just a whole heap of medications. That was the week that my uterogestrin doubled, so it went to $181.98. cents. Week 15, no expenses, money win. Week 16, I had my private OB management fee come out at $2,500. And then again, I had to top up on my supplements. So my prenatals, I started taking ultrafluora, which is kind of like a probiotic, which I wasn't having a very good time with all the other medications. So I got something to support that. I'd done a blood test that was included thankfully. So that didn't cost me anything out of pocket, but I was low in iron.

So I started taking iron supplements, a vitamin D supplement and C. I also needed to take some B12. So that was $21, $26, $32 and $28 for those retrospectively. And then I had some hospital parking. I then at about 20 weeks, which by the way, this is really late in the game. I decided that I really wanted to have a doula. And the reason I wanted to have a doula was because of past birth trauma. I just really, in my first birth, didn't feel like I was supported. And this whole time I'd kind of had it in the back of my mind that that was something I wanted to do, but I also just wasn't sure because I have a really supportive husband. So I was like, no, we can do it. Like, anyway, changed my mind on that and hired Steph, who was my birth doula.

and honestly, the most incredible person in the entire world. She has since changed her fees. I did definitely tell her that they were too low for what she was offering, but my doula package, I started at 20 weeks, which if I was you and you have decided that a doula is something that you want to have as part of your birth experience, I would be basically trying to set them up the second I got a positive pregnancy test because the good doulas get booked out then and I'm just lucky that I got in with Steph. Anyway, that cost was split into four. So my deposit for my doula birth package was $875. Then week 21, I had another external anatomy scan at $475 with a $165 Medicare rebate. And at that point, my rebate went up a little bit because I hit my

cap for the year. I also have got a note here that I started getting really bad acid reflux and heartburn. So we started adding a prescription medication for acid reflux and heartburn and then things like Gaviscon and Mylanta in addition to my nausea medications, which I was still taking. So we're speeding through that. In week 22, I spent $78 on medications. Then week 24, I spent $317.98 because I needed to have an iron infusion. Personally, I chose to do that in a private setting as opposed to going into hospital for that. Absolutely acknowledging my privilege of choice there, but wanted to do that, but that cost me $250 and then it cost me $40 for the script for that. And then we had some Gaviscon and Mylanta fees. 25 weeks, I spent $16 on hospital

parking. I did actually end up spending a lot on hospital parking during this pregnancy. As I mentioned before, I had recurrent miscarriage. So I was actually seeing my obstetrician every two weeks, which is something that I'm really grateful for because every two weeks I would go into his offices and I would have an ultrasound so that's something that was one of the driving forces behind me going no no I don't want to use the public system was that additional support that additional hand holding because by the time I was pregnant with Campbell I had experienced four late stage miscarriages and the anxiety from that was I would say horrific so the idea that I could have an obstetrician that would hold my hand through that process and basically say,

you just call me and you can come in and you can see your baby whenever you would like. And it didn't cost me anything extra. Like I wasn't paying out of pocket for those scans because he had an ultrasound machine in his rooms. Like to me, that was peace of mind. And it was one of the big reasons that I genuinely went down the private path again. After Harvey, I had really reconsidered and been like, oh, well, the public system is honestly just as good. But for me, just the privilege of having somebody hold my hand was really good. So shout out to Dr. Scott Shima. You are an icon. Anyway, we'll skip past. We are now at week 27, which was an expensive week. Again, $19 in hospital parking, but I had another private

obstetrician management fee of $2,500. I also had my second installment of my doula birth package, which was $875, bringing us up to $3,394 for that week, which brings us to the end of trimester two. So in trimester two, I'd spent around $8,472.07, which brings us to a rolling total of $20,653.12 all up, which is almost now triple that initial figure supplied in the research at the top of this episode. Again, while private health cover does definitely play into things, it is only a third of that story. I don't know, am I going to crack the $30,000 mark? My friends, you are going to have to stick around till after the break to find out. Hello and welcome back. And in case you need a little recap, we are covering what it actually

cost me personally to have a baby in Australia in the private health system with my literal receipts to prove it. A little caveat for me is that I obviously did have things like private health cover before and then throughout my pregnancy, but I also experienced some very traumatic nausea. So as I said before, medications have played a really big role in my spend, which I'm really hoping doesn't play a really big role in yours. But if I'm going to be saying that I'm putting all my receipts on the table, I should be as transparent as possible and give you a dollar by dollar breakdown. But we are finally here. We're at the third trimester. And while I may have spent the least during this trimester, a really good chunk of my money actually went

towards fighting heartburn and absolutely smashing through medjool dates and raspberry leaf tea because your girl is Delulu and I was trying very hard to have a VBAC. Now I'm going to just preface that because not everyone listening is going to know what a VBAC is. A VBAC is a vaginal birth after a cesarean. And when I had Harvey, I ended up having an emergency cesarean. And then when I had Campbell, I really wanted to try for a vaginal birth. Unfortunately, that didn't end up happening. And I will explain that later when we start talking about costs. But when it comes to things like medjool dates and your raspberry leaf tea, I mean, there is some research or there is some genuine research behind having medjool dates in your third trimester of pregnancy, because side

note apparently they help you soften your cervix so that you're in the best possible position to give birth but maybe you aren't going to spend money on that and that's fine I do stand by my decision because even if you don't believe in the research I guess they're really good for regulating your sugar levels and I guess they're packed with fiber and I'm telling you right now with nausea medication running through my veins basically at this point fiber is definitely necessary. And I'm not going to hear any, any medial date slander. Now, when it comes to third trimester between weeks 28 and 40, and by the way, 40 is where it ends because I ended up actually giving birth to Campbell on my due date. So smack bang on 40 weeks, I spent a total of $4,102.96.

cents. In week 28, I spent $280. This is definitely, I would say like nice to have. I ended up buying a relatively expensive pregnancy pillow. I love her. It's the BB Hug Me. It was $210 including delivery. I got it on Amazon. I actually haven't seen it that cheap since, but at that point I was getting uncomfortable and I was like, do you know what? Putting the pillows from the spare bedroom between my legs is no longer cutting the mustard. And the rest of that week was nausea medications and other medications like Gaviscon and Mylanta. We skipped to week 30. I spent $289.17 because I needed a big top up of all of my supplements. Obviously that happened all at once, which was quite frustrating. So again, prenatals, my probiotics,

vitamin D, vitamin C, iron and B12. I then went a little bit to Lulu and this is where some people are going to say, Victoria Devine, what are you doing? I saw a chiropractor. And you know what? I don't want to hear it. This chiropractor genuinely helped me spin my baby because at 31 weeks, I was told that my baby was breech. And for somebody hoping for a VBAC, that was not an ideal scenario. So I spent $16 on hospital parking and I did a chiro initial appointment, which was $160. Then in week 32, I spent $192.96. I had updates of all of my vaccinations. I had whooping cough, RSVP and my flu done at my GP all at the same time and then medications. From this point onwards, I start seeing that chiropractor every single week and that is $70. Then in week

34, I have my third installation of my doula birth package, another $875. And then I had my 34 week anatomy scan, which was $445. And then I got $163 back on Medicare. It's this week at 34 weeks that I start smashing medjool dates. Like I'm having a whole packet of medjool dates a week because the recommendation based on research and you do your own, but the recommendation is that you have at least four medjool dates a day to see any benefits. So that was another $13. And then my raspberry leaf tea was costing me $4.98 a week. Week 35, I spent $244. I obviously had my Cairo, my medjool dates, my raspberry leaf tea, but I also in that week went and saw a pelvic floor physio, which I a thousand percent recommend and that cost me $145 out of pocket. Week 36, again, medjool dates,

raspberry leaf tea, Cairo, hospital parking. At this point, I'm seeing my obstetrician every single week for a little update and scan. And then skipping to 38 weeks, I start taking another supplement. So that week it costs me $137.98 because I've added magnesium glycinate powder at $33.99 because I wasn't sleeping. And also it helps relax you. I saw a naturopath throughout my entire pregnancy. In fact, I have seen Zoe and I adore Zoe. I'll put her information in the show notes just because she's a phenomenal human being. I have seen Zoe for now years. And during this pregnancy, she supported me like none other. And so if you're hearing me say supplements, they're not just because I've gone on the internet and been like, oh, that sounds good. It's because

those were recommended by my naturopath. I don't recommend them for you. I think you need to go and see a naturopath and have someone recommend what makes sense for your body. And she did all of my blood work and all of these tests before even recommending one thing that I ingest. So for me, that was really good. Then 39 weeks, we're still just chilling. I was really hoping that I would have a baby this week. I did not. So again, we're medjool dates, we're Cairo, we are raspberry leaf tea and I had to go to the hospital twice that week. So parking was $12 and then $16. Week 40, we have a baby this week, which is very, very exciting. Same week, I also have my fourth installation of my doula birth package, which is $875. So I ended up spending just over

$4,100 in this trimester bringing my total to $24,756.08 so what wasn't included there so that was just my pregnancy costs like it didn't include the additional birth costs so I won't get too much into it because nobody needs me trauma dumping my second traumatic pregnancy I'll do that over on Australian birth stories very soon. But I ended up having an emergency cesarean because I had a uterus or uterine rupture, which if anyone has ever experienced that, I am so sorry. But yes, you kind of go running down the hallways and we have to get the baby out ASAP. And when you have a cesarean, you then incur some additional costs. So I had $1,500 for an anaesthetist to be there. And then I also spent a total of $808 on a pediatrician because you have to pay for a

pediatrician to be in attendance to your cesarean. Honestly, there were, you know, some other out-of-pocket costs associated with my hospital stay. I gave birth in Melbourne, Australia, and the hospital that I gave birth at, I gave birth at Epworth, if anyone is interested, Epworth Freemasons, they have a partnership with a local hotel and you go to that hotel to recover, which was honestly phenomenal. So I spent three nights in the hospital after my cesarean and was deemed fit to go to the hotel for two nights. And there are midwives there. They have all of the bells and whistles that they had

in hospital, but it was just honestly so much nicer to experience. But during that period of time, food was only covered for me, not for my husband. So we were paying out of pocket kind of like room service costs for that. And then thankfully that was my first hospital stay during that pregnancy. So I had to pay my excess on my private health insurance, which was $750, which actually takes the total for my pregnancy and birth well and truly to over $25,000. dollars. So the conversation now is like, was it worth it? For me? Yes. What would I do differently next time? I don't know. I'm looking now at potentially getting rid of my private health cover. Not entirely because I need it at a base level, but maybe dropping it down because

ultimately one of the things that I've taken into consideration here is that I have had to have the top hospital cover for my pregnancy from once I finished having my first baby, right? Because I didn't know, I knew truly that I wanted a second baby, but I didn't know when that baby would come. So from the day I gave birth to Harvey to the day I gave birth to Campbell, I needed to have private health insurance. And so for me, that cost, if you added that up the entire time. I think if I had just paid out of pocket to stay in a private hospital, which you absolutely can do, I actually think I would have saved money there. I mean, it's completely going to change. And it's actually been standardised in Australia that all gold level tiers of coverage

in Australia must include pregnancy and birth, assisted reproductive services and neonatal intensive care. So, I mean, if you're shopping around, you're actually looking at the top tier between different insurers if you want all of that covered and then if you were to like maybe considering going without you might want to look at the out-of-pocket costs for all of those insurances in comparison as well because it's not just covering some of your hospital stay right like if something goes wrong and you need NICU or you need you know reproductive services maybe that's something to consider. I did a little bit of a comparison and humbled myself as well so the most affordable open gold policy with the same excess that I had which is $750

is approximately $220 a month without the health insurance rebate stupidly I'm paying double that maybe because I'm loyal to my health insurer I don't know I don't think I should be loyal moving forward but for you it might be very worth paying to shop around and then the type of coverage that you get, it might actually be cheaper depending on where you are located and which hospitals are in your area. So for example, some insurers offer more competitive rates if you live in Perth. I was comparing what it was based on Melbourne and Perth because we have someone in our team based in Perth and I was shocked at how much cheaper it was in Perth. So maybe you should also consider moving states. I kid. And then you might also want to consider your Medicare limits because mine actually

ran out halfway through my pregnancy. As always, this is not financial advice. Please make sure that you read whatever PDS associated with your health insurance and check for any gap fees if you're preferred, like private hospital is or isn't included. But for me, all of this is added up. I don't regret it, but also that doesn't include even one nappy. It doesn't include the formula. It doesn't include, you know, a bed. It doesn't include any technical baby costs. That is just pregnancy and birth and you could definitely do it much cheaper using the public system and maybe this episode has like really reiterated to you like wow I didn't realize that if you go through the private system you do have to pay for your obstetrician out of pocket you do have to pay

for external scans and I didn't realize that I thought you just you know claimed it on your private health insurance like I spent seven and a half thousand dollars total on a private obstetrician and that is not covered by my private health insurance. So I think that's definitely worthy of consideration as well. And to be honest, if you, I don't know, I don't want to give advice because you do you, but if you have no complications and you're okay to go through the public system, I don't know why anyone wouldn't. My anxiety and my health anxiety and everything led me to the private system. And for me personally, I don't regret that, but that doesn't mean that's what you should do anyway I'll be sharing all of their helpful insurance links in the show notes and a

very helpful baby budget tracker which I used and I know a lot of people in our community have used and loved so that you can save and then you know use that during your own journeys but if you loved this episode and hanging out with me solo I mean please share it with a friend or someone who might you know want to know more about the finances of planning a baby or maybe even they want to laugh at me for how much it cost me. I mean, we need to get something out of the fact that it cost me $25,000 to be pregnant. Anyway, love you guys. Please subscribe so that you never miss the next episode and I'll see you later in the week for Friday drinks. Bye. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your

individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision if you do choose to buy a financial product read the pds tmd and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs victoria divine and she's on the money are authorized representatives of money sherpa pty ltd abn 321-649-27708 afsl 451-289 We'll see you next time.