Quick tip: pack important documents in your labor bag

If you’re having a hospital or birthing center birth, don’t forget to take along all the important paper items you’ll need in your labor bag. The last thing you want is for your partner to have to run home for paperwork while you labor alone.

Items you may need:

* Any hospital or medical paperwork that you haven’t already turned in.
* Health insurance information and your health insurance card.
* Your birth plan.
* If you’ve got it, health insurance paperwork for the new baby.
* Your ID and your partner’s ID. You both may need your social security cards as well.

Bonus items to pack:

* Loose change - so your partner can make phone calls to family and friends.
* Small pad of paper and pen - at the hospital your nurses, midwife, or doctor may give you important info and tips you’d like to jot down.

Can you think of anything else paper-minded that you should take with you?

Easy ways to save money on your baby

There’s plenty you can do to save money on your baby gear and care. Many of the things you can do to save money include simply using what you already have. For example…

Instead of baby wipes = use old washcloths, or cut up old cloth diapers. To make it easy, take all your washcloths and put them in a container with an easy to remove lid. Cover the cloths with water - just to soak, not dripping wet. Add a few drops of lavender essential oil (unless your baby is sensitive).

Instead of bottles and sippy cups = breastfeed and once your baby is ready for water or juice, move to a non-breakable cup. Babies don’t technically ever need a bottle or sippy.

Instead of bibs = feed your baby sans clothing.

Instead of a baby bath tub = bath your babe in the sink or in the tub. Tubs are harder. If you want to give your baby a bath in the tub, I suggest hopping in together. Make sure your partner is home so you don’t have to stand up and get out of a slippery tub while holding a baby.

Baby soap = if you buy a gentle formula soap and shampoo for your own use, your baby can use that.

Baby water = um, you so don’t need this. Use tap water or filtered tap water.

1. Baby laundry detergent = buy non-scented, gentle soap for the whole family and use that.

Hospital Agrees To Cut ER Rates 35% For Uninsured Patients

Lawyers have announced a proposed class-action lawsuit settlement that could affect the ability of health insurers to negotiate better rates than uninsured patients get.
Scripps Health, San Diego, has agreed to offer a 35% discount off of its regular charges for uninsured patients who use its emergency room, according to Kelly Dermody, a San Francisco lawyer who helped represent the plaintiffs.
If approved by a court, the discount will apply to uninsured patients who received care between July 19, 2002; and the date of preliminary settlement approval; Dermody says.
The 35% discount requirement also will apply to uninsured patients who use the Scripps emergency room over the next 4 years, Dermody says.
Scripps has agreed to maintain “compassionate pricing and collections policies” in the future, and to offer counseling to uninsured patients to help them qualify for discounts and extended payment programs, Dermody says.
Representatives for Scripps were not immediately available to comment on the proposed settlement agreement.
The proposed agreement would settle Franklin vs. Scripps Health, a suit filed in a state court in San Diego in July 2006, Dermody says.
The court certified the plaintiff class in the case in June 2007.
San Diego County Superior Court Judge Steven Denton expects to hold a hearing on the proposed settlement Friday.