Watch: Why Is Having a Baby So Expensive in the US?

New moms all over social media are breaking down their incredibly expensive hospital bills after giving birth. So why is giving birth so pricey in the U.S.? And given the Trump administration’s anti-abortion, pro-natalist policies, is anything on the table to make having a child more affordable?

KFF Health News video producer Hannah Norman spoke with Stephanie Hastings, a physician and an assistant program director at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and Malini Nijagal, an OB-GYN and a clinical professor at the University of California-San Francisco.

KFF Health News is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about KFF.

<h1>Watch: Why Is Having a Baby So Expensive in the US?</h1>
<div>	<span class="byline">Hannah Norman, KFF Health News</span>
		<time class="posted-on" datetime="2025-09-12T05:00:00-04:00">
			September 12, 2025		</time>
		</div>
<p>New moms all over social media are breaking down their incredibly expensive hospital bills after giving birth. So why is giving birth so pricey in the U.S.? And given the Trump administration’s anti-abortion, pro-natalist policies, is anything on the table to make having a child more affordable?</p><p>KFF Health News video producer Hannah Norman spoke with Stephanie Hastings, a physician and an assistant program director at the Cambridge Health Alliance, and Malini Nijagal, an OB-GYN and a clinical professor at the University of California-San Francisco.</p><p /><ul><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/watch-having-baby-childbirth-cost-expensive-us-hospital-bills-natalism/?share=x">				Click to share on X (Opens in new window)				X			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/watch-having-baby-childbirth-cost-expensive-us-hospital-bills-natalism/?share=facebook">				Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)				Facebook			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/watch-having-baby-childbirth-cost-expensive-us-hospital-bills-natalism/?share=linkedin">				Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)				LinkedIn			</a></li><li><a href="mailto:?subject=%5BShared%20Post%5D%20Watch%3A%20Why%20Is%20Having%20a%20Baby%20So%20Expensive%20in%20the%20US%3F&body=https%3A%2F%2Fkffhealthnews.org%2FMjA4NjE3Mw&share=email">				Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)				Email			</a></li><li><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/watch-having-baby-childbirth-cost-expensive-us-hospital-bills-natalism/#print?share=print">				Click to print (Opens in new window)				Print			</a></li><li>				<a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/watch-having-baby-childbirth-cost-expensive-us-hospital-bills-natalism/view/republish/">					Republish This Story				</a>			</li></ul><em><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/about-us">KFF Health News</a> is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF—an independent source of health policy research, polling, and journalism. Learn more about <a href="https://www.kff.org/about-us">KFF</a>.</em><p><a href="https://kffhealthnews.org/morning-briefing/">Subscribe</a> to KFF Health News' free Morning Briefing.</p><p>This <a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/watch-having-baby-childbirth-cost-expensive-us-hospital-bills-natalism/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://kffhealthnews.org">KFF Health News</a> and is republished here under a <a target="_blank" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License</a>.<img src="https://kffhealthnews.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/04/kffhealthnews-icon.png?w=150" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;"></p>
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