I have written before about my beloved Meghan, who was the absolute worse nursing baby in the whole world. She was cranky, didn’t latch properly, made breastfeeding a nightmare. . .and so on.
She was my third baby though, so I was willing to seek out qualified professional help. . .at the hefty price of $135 per hour! Our insurance company does not cover a visit to the lactation consultant. I am not aware of any in this area that do nor am I aware of any pediatric practices that have them on staff. (Some pediatric practices near us have lactation consultants on staff but they are not IBCLC certified.) Likewise, the hospitals have them but again, they are not IBCLC certified which makes a big difference when things aren’t going well.
The milk is free. . .but the intervention certainly isn’t!
The Pump Rental: I called around and was quoted anything from $40 per month to $150 per month for a hospital grade rental pump. The average was about $70 though so we’ll go with that figure. Most moms who pump will not pump exclusively for 12 months however, let’s assume that they are pumping exclusively for 6 months and after 6 months (usually around the time baby would start solids) our mom buys a pump because she no longer needs the hospital grade one. At $70 per month for 6 months your cost is $420 dollars.
Buying a Pump: If you intend to exclusively breastfeed, the hospital grade pump is generally the only way to go. I know of only one woman who was able to pump exclusively using a store bought pump and she was also able to donate milk. (This is rare and I suspect that if she actually were nursing her baby at the breast, she’d have problems related to having too much milk!) We assumed that mom would be exclusively pumping for the first six months of life. Let’s also assume from 6 months to 12 months, the baby is eating solids so mom doesn’t have to pump as much. So she turns in her rental and buys a store bought pump. Again, to make that much breast milk you can’t go cheaply. I’ve been told by numerous lactation consultants that the breast pump to get is the Medela Pump in Style which is $319.00 at Babies ‘R’ Us.
Lactation Consultant: A good lactation consultant will fix a bad latch immediately. If that is your only problem, you can expect to see her once and be on your way. But let’s assume that the situation is more complicated and that you’ll need to see her at least once a week for the first six weeks. A session with a IBCLC certified lactation consultant will run about $150 per session. $150 for 6 weeks is $900.
I am told that some insurance companies will cover these expenses if you can get your pediatrician to write a referral. In my case, my pediatrician did write a referral but the insurance company would not cover it. (Apparently, if I had half starved my child to death and she was deemed underweight. . .they would’ve covered it. But since my nipples were only bleeding and cracked. . .they didn’t see it as a “feeding problem”.) I am aware that hospitals, WIC programs, etc. will often provide them for free within the first 6 weeks of life. Many of these ‘lactation consultants’ are not certified. What’s the difference? The difference is that if you are really having problems–they won’t be able to help you. They are trained to help the average mom with the average baby. This will exclude preemies, any special situations, and babies like my Meghan.
Our calculated costs so far:
$420 Pump Rental
$319 Buying a Pump
$900 Lactation Consultant Appointments
$1639 Total expenses for feeding your child breast milk for the first year.
On the other hand. . .
Formula: I checked around and most places say to budget about $45 per week on formula. If you use pre-mixed formula this could be more expensive and of course if you’re a coupon queen it could be less expensive. $45 seems to be a good average. . .so $45 per week x 52 weeks = $2,340.
I realize that these are rough estimates and I realize that people’s experiences may vary greatly based on insurance companies and their location. Many moms who have to pump exclusively stop much earlier than 6 months and switch to formula feeding. I just thought it would be an interesting comparison. Even with all of the intervention, breast milk is still cheaper.
That’s not surprising but it’s hard to remember when you’re in the midst of feeding troubles with your infant. One thing that is different about breast milk expenditures for intervention vs. formula feeding is that formula feeding expenses come out of a monthly budget. Intervention expenditures come in chunks and are often unplanned because no one who plans to breastfeed thinks they will have to go through all that trouble.
I must say too, that even if breastfeeding with more intervention was MORE expensive than formula, it is still better nutrition for your infant. Kudos to all those mothers who had to pump and did so for awhile. I admire your perseverance.