It is certainly more expensive JUST to give birth than it used to be and we have to levy some of that blame onto the insurance companies and our less than female-friendly government. The powers that be want to call pregnancy a pre-existing condition as though only women are responsible for getting pregnant in the first place, and in turn, force us to pay more for health insurance as well as the disgustingly high cost of giving birth. It’s biology for goodness sake. I had two friends who had healthy births, thankfully, but still had to file for medical bankruptcy afterward because they couldn’t afford the $11k price tag. I can only imagine what a complicated birth might have cost.