What are the hospitalisation costs associated with childbirth? Does the method of conception matter?

Does every child have a different price?
Photo: Daniela Fraindová.

The researchers analysed two data sets from the database of the General Health Insurance Company of the Czech Republic (GHIC CR) from 2014. The first data set comprised information on 51,516 new-born children (of which 2.6% were likely to have been conceived through IVF – in vitro fertilisation). The second data set contained information on 50,771 mothers, 2.4% of whom had probably given birth after IVF. Determining whether the birth was IVF was based on a comparison of time data between the reporting of IVF-related healthcare service provision and the date of childbirth.

The group of mothers was divided into four age categories spanning each set of four years from 25 to 40 years old. The analysis included essential data about the mother’s age, sex and weight of new-born children, number of new-born children, type of childbirth, complications during/after birth, and length and costs associated with hospitalisation at/after /birth. The key information for this research were the costs associated with hospitalisation during and after childbirth.

Overall, the proportion of mothers giving birth after IVF increased with age (from 1.3 to 6%), which corresponds with the declining ability to conceive spontaneously at an older age. Regarding hospitalisation costs, there were noticeably higher costs for mothers and their new-born children after the use of IVF. Why was this? It could be attributable to a much higher percentage of caesarean sections, multiple pregnancies, and lower birth weight of new-born children. However, these were also evident in cases without IVF, although more complications were evident for new-born children and mothers after IVF.

A notable finding was that the age of the mother at birth had a significantly smaller effect on hospitalisation costs than other factors such as the birth weight of new-born children or the frequency and type of birth. Slightly higher costs associated with hospitalisation were recorded for children weighing more than 2,500 g born to mothers in the youngest and oldest age categories, i.e., 25–28 and 37–40 years.

This demographic research has shown that even though new possibilities exist for conceiving a child, natural conception still seems less expensive in most cases. The age of the mothers also plays an important role, especially with regard to after-birth complications.

Kateřina Fraindová

Havelková, T., Šídlo, L., Kocourková, J., Šťastná, A. 2021: Mothers and their new-born children in Czechie in 2014: Hospitalisation costs associated with the birth of a child with regard to the probable way of conceiving a child. Demografie 63: 173–186.