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I feel this is one of biggest issues in modern day healthcare: The fact that there is basically no way you can get affordable private healthcare that includes maternity. I'm serious, start researching it yourself and you will be extremely frustrated!

I should probably mention that, no I'm not pregnant and yes I do have insurance, but not too long ago I was in this situation.

Due to a series of unfortunate events, I found myself 3 months pregnant with no insurance, there was a major lapse in coverage (though I thought I was covered) and so the whole, "pregnancy can't be considered a pre-existing condition" thing totally went through a loop hole.
We looked into almost every option and talked with a bazillion other people, but could find absolutely no solution. Either the waiting periods were so long I wouldn't be pregnant when it was off, or the monthly premiums were so high that I could not feasibly afford to pay it (around $1000 a month).
I am what the industry has coined, a Mom in the Middle. I don't make enough to pay for outrageous private healthcare, but I also make too much to qualify for any federally or state funded insurance.

So recently I decided to do a little research on it to see if times had changed and if any progress has been made to help the Moms in the Middle. I should have known better because it hasn't.

So what are some options for moms in the middle? Unfortunately, none are ideal.

1. NASE: If you own your own business there is an association for the self employed called NASE (National Association for the Self Employed). You have to pay a sign up fee of $75 for the year then you are part or a "corporation" so you are offered health benefits like if you were employed. They do have a maternity rider because since they aren't a huge corporation ie- Starbucks they don't have the cost for maternity spread out to all employees (even males) so that the cost is lower. The rider is something like $300-400 extra per month for 12 months and then they will pay 60% of cost up to $3000. If you pay the extra $300-400 premiums for 24 months, they will cover 80% up to $7000. Obviously, this is NOT a good deal.

2. Private Healthcare with a maternity rider:
Only like 1 or 2 companies offer this. I saw that Humana offered a maternity optional coverage, which was an extra $150 a month (in addition the $250 premium for Lyric and I). Then there was a $5000 deductible. Then after you paid the deductible, for the first 2 years, they would cover up to $2500 worth of pregnancy related expenses, then 3 years they would cover $5000 and then after 4 years of paying this extra premium they would pay up to $7500 of maternity related expenses (which is the max).
Well I had a baby in a hospital with an epidural, and my delivery fees alone (not including the doctor) were $10,000. It would never be worth it.

This had to be one of the hardest things that I have done, trying to get my breastfed daughter to begin taking a bottle.

My 6 month old daughter was exclusively breastfed. She had taken bottles fine in the past and I even thought she preferred them. When I would go out for an evening or had to be gone for more than 3 hours, I would leave a bottle and she NEVER gave me a problem with it!

That is until I had to go back to work full time. She was 6 months old and we had just gotten back from a 3 week trip. I was scheduled to back to work full time a few days after we got home. The day before I went back to work, I decided to give her a bottle all day, just to make sure she was used to it. Well that is when it started. She would not take the bottle. She would spit it out, cry, push it away, etc. She refused to eat. I tried all day to no avail.

So then I went to work and had to leave twice to go home and feed her because my sister (who was keeping her) said she couldn't get her to eat. I tried giving her it in a sippy cup, she refused that. I had always used Advent bottles, but she wouldn't take them. I then switched to NUK bottles because she uses the NUK passy's and thought, well maye that would work. Nope. I tried Playtex bottles, nope. Finally, I was a total wreck.

I was already dealing with the guilt of having to leave my daughter 9 hours a day, but then to top it all off knowing she wasn't eating while I was gone sent me to the brinks of meltdown.