Oh the joy of becoming a parent. To be there at that very moment your child is born, to hold them, and to be dinged $40 by the ridiculous and greedy hospital – it’s truly a magical time.
A Redditor by the name of“halfthrottle”, real name Ryan Grassley of Utah, posted the bill from his hospital with the headline, “I had to pay $39.35 to hold my baby after he was born.”
The total of the bill was more than $13,000 – of which his kid will never appreciate – and is dated Sept. 23, with the baby’s delivery being on Sept. 4.
Grassley said he was not that upset about the charge in a comment:
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.
A Redditor named “FiftySixer,” who said they are a nurse, tried to explain what was up with the charge:
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.
The hospital has, so far, not commented.
(KTLA)
