Butch Says the Cost of Having a Child Today is CRAZY!

By: Butch Dale

My wife and I stopped in at Wal-Mart (our home away from home) in Lafayette this past weekend to pick up a few items, and as I proceeded to the grocery section, I noticed an older lady who was pushing her cart down the aisle ahead of me. Although she had her back to me, I recognized her…it was our former doctor’s nurse Rosemary, who worked in Dr. Chester Waits’ office in Lafayette for many years until he retired in 1986.

Realizing that she likely would not recognize me since we had not seen each other for almost forty years, I introduced myself and called my wife over to see her, and the three of us caught up on the past. Rosemary told us she was now 98 years old. Her husband passed away five years ago at the age of 94, and they had been married 76 years before his passing! She appeared to be in excellent health, and she still lived by herself and even still drove her car. One of the things we talked about were the changes to the medical profession, and the associated costs of having a child. When our oldest son Neil was born in 1971, my wife was in labor for over thirty-one hours, and Dr. Waits had to call in a specialist to deliver him. The delivery charge was $50…that’s right…FIFTY DOLLARS. With the three days she spent at Home Hospital, the total bill was $565.

Three years later, in 1974, our daughter Shelle was born at the same hospital. Dr. Waits charged $75, and with my wife spending three days in the hospital, the total bill was $725. Our third child, Clark, was born in 1979. Dr. Waits again charged $75, and the total bill, with a 3-day hospital stay…$865. Now…fast forward to 1988. Yes, my wife and I were forty years old by then, but strange things can happen. She was pregnant again! Dr. Waits had retired two years earlier, so we had to find another doctor to deliver the baby. My wife was in labor only six hours, and Brett was born without any delivery complications. Our new doctor charged $800, and the total bill, with my wife spending only two days in the hospital was…$4400. Holy Cow! Yes, I had to go on the monthly payment plan, and by working overtime as a deputy sheriff as much as possible, had it paid off in a year.

I searched the Internet to see how much it costs today to have a child. The total costs of delivery and hospital stay, with no complications, runs anywhere from $11,000 to $18,000…and sometimes as much as $25,000…unbelievable! Although I realize we should have regular checkups, my wife and I very seldom go to a doctor unless it’s an extreme emergency. We were both raised in the “good ol’ days” when home remedies were common, and like a couple of idiots, we usually “doctor” ourselves. A few years ago, I test-fired a very old shotgun. The recoil caused my hand to slip, and the shotgun’s hammer ripped open the flesh over my thumb joint, exposing the bone. Not good. But no problem. I poured hydrogen peroxide over the open gash, and held it closed while my wife SUPERGLUED it. Thankfully the wound healed in about two weeks. Of course it could have become infected and caused much worse problems, but I figured I saved about $3000. I’m a gambler…a DUMB gambler.

My father never went to a doctor in his life. Never had a prescription. Never even took an aspirin. He had a heart attack in the fall of 1990 and never told a soul. He then had a second heart attack in the spring of 1991, and died one month later at the age of 66. Evidently I have inherited some of his traits. If my folks would have had to pay very much when my four siblings and I were born, it is doubtful that we would even be here today.

You know…to be truthful I’m not even certain that my folks are my actual biological parents. Whenever I did something really stupid as a child, my Dad would inform me that possibly a buzzard had laid an egg on a stump, and the sun had hatched me out. Hmmmm….

– John “Butch” Dale is a retired teacher and County Sheriff. He has also been the librarian at Darlington the past 32 years, and is a well-known artist and author of local history.