Saturday, July 26, 2008

26 weeks: Little babies, big money

According to one of my pregnancy books, a fetus delivered at 26 weeks has about an 80 percent chance of survival. Pretty impressive considering full term* is still 11 weeks away, and the due date is still 14 weeks.

A low-end estimate of the cost for the neo-natal care required to keep the baby alive: $100,000.00.

Needless to say, as excited as I am to have this baby, I am more than happy to wait another 14 weeks.


*A pregnancy is considered full term at 37 weeks because all the baby's body systems are fully developed. So, in most cases, if mom goes into labor, the hospital staff isn't going to stop it.

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