Before you try
Book a preconception visit for whichever of you will carry the pregnancy. The doctor will review medications, vaccinations and family history, and will usually recommend a prenatal vitamin with folic acid before conception, not after. Then read your health plan. Find the deductible and the out-of-pocket maximum, since a birth commonly reaches the maximum, and a pregnancy that spans two plan years can reach it twice. Confirm that the hospital and the practice are in network.
Short-term disability insurance is the detail people miss. It typically pays around 60 percent of salary for six weeks after a vaginal birth and eight after a cesarean, but most policies must be in force before the pregnancy begins.
Know your leave
The federal Family and Medical Leave Act gives either parent twelve weeks of unpaid but job-protected leave, including for adoption or foster placement, but only if your employer has 50 or more employees and you have worked there a year and 1,250 hours. More than a dozen states, including California, New York, New Jersey, Washington and Massachusetts, run paid family leave programs, and your state labor department lists the benefit and how to apply. Ask human resources for the written policy early.
Money and child care
Build the emergency fund toward six months of expenses, and run a trial by living on your expected leave budget for three months and banking the difference. Infant care is the largest new cost, often rivaling rent, and good centers have waiting lists of six months to a year, so get on lists during the second trimester. A dependent care flexible spending account, if your employer offers one, pays part of that bill with pre-tax dollars.
The legal paperwork
- Write wills that name a guardian, because without one a court chooses who raises your child.
- Buy term life insurance on both parents, including a parent who stays home, commonly ten to twelve times income for a 20 or 30 year term.
- Update beneficiaries, and name a trust or an adult custodian in place of a minor, since an insurer cannot pay a child directly.
- Add the baby to your health plan within 30 days of birth on an employer plan, or 60 days on a Marketplace plan. Missing that window is the costliest error here.
- Request the Social Security number on the hospital's birth form.
Note Unmarried parents should ask the hospital about signing a voluntary acknowledgment of parentage at the birth. In most states it is the simplest way to establish the second parent's legal rights.
