Posted by: Richie Bernardo

What should you expect when you’re expecting? Besides possibly the greatest joy of your life, you can expect a lot of extra expenses. Between one-time costs such as a crib and stroller and ongoing ones including diapers and formula, it’s easy to go over budget.

One of the biggest expenses to keep in mind is medical bills. According to The Economist, the average conventional delivery in the U.S. costs over $10,000, more expensive than the birth of Britain’s latest royal baby. Whether or not you have insurance naturally plays a big role as well.

Birthing costs, however, won’t hit your wallet as badly in some states as they will in others. Expenses can vary significantly, considering the wide disparities in cost of living. They can also differ from one pregnancy to another, given that some women experience delivery complications. But there’s more to think about than just cost. Some states provide better quality health care service and better environments in which to care for children.

To determine the most ideal places in the U.S. to have a baby, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 26 key measures of cost, health care accessibility, as well as baby- and family-friendliness. Our data set ranges from hospital conventional-delivery charges to annual average infant-care costs to pediatricians per capita. Read on for our findings, expert insight from a panel of researchers and a full description of our methodology.

1. Main Findings
2. Ask the Experts
3. Methodology

Main Findings Embed on your website<iframe src="//d2e70e9yced57e.cloudfront.net/wallethub/embed/6513/geochart-baby.html" width="556" height="347" frameBorder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe> <div style="width:556px;font-size:12px;color:#888;">Source: <a href="https://ift.tt/2OxOtp9>

 

Best States to Have a Baby

Overall Rank (1 = Best)	State	Total Score	‘Cost’ Rank	‘Health Care’ Rank	‘Baby-Friendliness’ Rank	‘Family-Friendliness’ Rank
1	Vermont	69.61	20	1	8	5
2	Massachusetts	67.76	27	3	12	1
3	Minnesota	67.06	18	4	5	2
4	New Hampshire	65.65	11	2	40	3
5	North Dakota	63.21	2	19	19	4
6	Connecticut	59.30	39	13	3	11
7	Colorado	57.80	38	8	4	14
8	Nebraska	56.59	19	15	22	9
9	District of Columbia	56.44	28	37	1	N/A
10	California	56.07	50	11	6	10
11	Washington	55.99	26	14	14	13
12	Utah	55.17	24	17	10	16
13	Hawaii	55.04	14	12	2	33
14	Iowa	54.95	25	21	21	8
15	Rhode Island	54.79	36	6	9	22
16	Oregon	54.67	12	10	11	25
17	Maine	54.03	21	7	37	17
18	New York	53.86	42	27	13	7
19	Wisconsin	53.65	46	22	18	6
20	New Jersey	50.64	43	30	16	12
21	Illinois	50.56	32	24	20	15
22	Ohio	48.26	3	34	34	23
23	Maryland	47.61	5	29	27	29
24	Kansas	47.40	35	9	36	26
25	Virginia	47.04	17	28	35	21
26	Pennsylvania	46.78	4	32	51	18
27	South Dakota	46.18	49	16	45	19
28	Idaho	45.87	13	18	24	34
29	Alaska	45.83	51	5	7	39
30	Montana	43.46	15	23	46	27
31	Indiana	42.52	8	42	30	30
32	Michigan	42.43	6	35	39	35
33	Wyoming	42.09	48	33	17	28
34	Delaware	41.97	37	20	41	31
35	Texas	41.49	40	44	29	20
36	Kentucky	40.76	7	38	33	37
37	Missouri	40.22	31	39	43	24
38	Arizona	39.12	22	25	38	40
39	Florida	37.99	41	40	28	32
40	North Carolina	37.46	30	31	42	38
41	Tennessee	35.26	44	47	15	36
42	Nevada	34.78	33	26	48	41
43	New Mexico	34.74	16	36	25	50
44	Arkansas	33.69	9	49	26	43
45	Georgia	33.60	23	43	31	42
46	West Virginia	32.17	10	45	47	47
47	Oklahoma	31.93	45	41	23	45
48	Louisiana	30.57	1	51	32	46
49	South Carolina	27.53	34	48	49	44
50	Alabama	25.28	47	46	50	48
51	Mississippi	23.16	29	50	44	49

 

Ask the Experts

Parenthood readiness requires financial preparedness. To help expectant parents with the planning process and provide policy insight to local governments, we asked a panel of experts to weigh in with their thoughts on the following key questions:

1. When planning to have a child, what financial considerations should parents take into account?
2. What is the biggest financial mistake that prospective parents make?
3. What can local authorities do to make their cities more baby-friendly?
4. What makes low-income children in some cities do better than those in other cities?
5. Will children born today do better economically as adults than their parents? How much does location matter?
6. How might the recent policy and SCOTUS changes shape access to prenatal and infant care across states?

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• Tami James Moore CFLE, Professor and Program Director of Family Studies, College of Business and Technology, University of Nebraska at Kearney
• Steven Meyers Ph.D., ABPP, Professor and Associate Chair of Psychology, Director, Undergraduate Psychology Programs and Initiative for Child and Family Studies, Roosevelt University
• Peter St. Jean Associate Professor of Sociology, North Park University
• Matthew Mulvaney Associate Professor, Human Development and Family Science, Falk College, Syracuse University
• Jeff Wallace Business Advisor, Negotiator, Investor, and Assistant Professor at Snow College

Methodology

In order to determine the best and worst states to have a baby, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across four key dimensions: 1) Cost, 2) Health Care, 3) Baby-Friendliness and 4) Family-Friendliness.

We evaluated those dimensions using 26 relevant metrics, which are listed below with their corresponding weights. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, with a score of 100 representing the most favorable conditions for expectant parents and newborns.

Finally, we determined each state and the District’s weighted average across all metrics to calculate its overall score and used the resulting scores to rank-order our sample.

Cost – Total Points: 20

• Hospital Cesarean-Delivery Charges: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
• Hospital Conventional-Delivery Charges: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
• Average Annual Cost of Early Child Care: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
• Average Health-Insurance Premiums: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
• Current Status of Medicaid Expansion Decision: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)Note: We included this metric because Medicaid Expansion helps cover a greater amount of birthing costs.
• Cost of Babysitter/ Nanny: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)
• Cost of Newborn Screening: Full Weight (~2.86 Points)

Health Care- Total Points: 40

• Infant Mortality Rate: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)
• Maternal Mortality Ratio (per 100,000 Live Births): Full Weight (~3.27 Points)
• Rate of Low Birth-Weight: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)
• Rate of Preterm Births: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)
• Share of Children with All Seven Recommended Vaccines: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)Note: “Recommended vaccines” include the following: DTaP vaccine; polio vaccine; measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine; Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) vaccine; varicella (chicken pox) vaccine; hepatitis B (HepB) vaccine; and pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV). “Children” include the population aged 19 to 35 months.
• Quality of Women’s Hospitals: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)Note: This metric is based on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals for Gynecology” score.
• Quality of Pediatric Neonatology Facilities: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)Note: This metric is based on U.S. News & World Report’s “Best Hospitals for Pediatric Neonatology” score.
• Midwives & Obstetrician-Gynecologists per Capita: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)
• Pediatricians & Family Doctors per Capita: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)
• Fertility Clinics per Capita: Quarter Weight (~0.82 Points)
• mPINC Survey Score: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)Note: The mPINC (Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care) survey is a national survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “to monitor and examine changes in practices over time at all hospitals and birth centers with registered maternity beds in the United States and Territories.”
• Prenatal Care Access: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)
• Share of Children Aged 9-35 Months who Received Developmental Screening using a Parent-Completed Screening Tool: Full Weight (~3.27 Points)Note: A parent-completed screening tool is a survey given to parents that may help identify developmental delays in their children.

Baby-Friendliness - Total Points: 20

• Parental-Leave Policy Score: Double Weight (~6.67 Points)
• Mom Groups per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Child-Care Centers per Capita: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Share of Nationally Accredited Child-Care Centers: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)
• Birth Rate: Full Weight (~3.33 Points)

Family-Friendliness - Total Points: 20

• Family-Friendliness: Full Weight (~20.00 Points)Note: This metric is based on WalletHub’s “Best & Worst States to Raise a Family” ranking.

Resources:

• Summary video with V/O
• Summary video without V/O

 

Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project, U.S. News & World Report, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Child Care Aware of America, National Partnership for Women & Families, Data Resource Center for Child & Adolescent Health, Kaiser Family Foundation, Office of Legislative Research, United Health Foundation, Indeed, BabyCenter.com and WalletHub research.

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