Jessica
Jessica is the mother of twin babies born in Northern California.
Transcript
Interviewer: Can you tell me about your experience as a mother of twin babies who stayed in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for quite a long time?
I have twin babies who were born at 34 weeks gestation.
The birth was an emergency and was very traumatic.
While we were so so so lucky to be alive, our twins were still in the NICU for 9 weeks due to feeding issues.
Everyday I drove about 30 minutes down the mountain through the forest to the hospital to visit them.
while we were there, I saw other families with babies who were transferred from much farther away in surrounding, more rural locations because this was the only Level III center in the area.
After our babies’ long NICU stay, our insurance bill was $3,000,0000. We were so fortunate to have health insurance. There are other families with children who stay in the NICU who are not as fortunate and do not have health insurance.
The New York Times article: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/11/parenting/nicu-costs.html
March of Dimes: https://www.marchofdimes.org/find-support/topics/neonatal-intensive-care-unit-nicu/paying-your-babys-nicu-stay
University of Michigan: https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/rounds/1-6-families-new-study-spent-more-than-5000-to-have-a-baby
Location:
Northern California
Date: 2022
Barriers: Location, Cost of Care, Health Care Speciality Shortage
HEALTH CONVERSATIONS: When Aware We Care 