A nurse-midwife was charged nearly $5,000 for using laughing gas to manage her own pain during labor.
Karli-Rae Kerrschneider, from Baldwin, Wisconsin, had used an epidural while giving birth to her first child, her daughter Eleanor, in 2016, but didn’t like that it limited her movement during delivery.
So she decided to use nitrous oxide, or laughing gas – which allowed her to walk around her hospital room – during the birth of her second child, her son Leviathan, in December 2018.
During the course of the 11-hour labor, Kerrschneider, 32, estimates she breathed in the nitrous oxide about 10 to 15 times an hour, reported Kaiser Health News.
She was shocked when she and her husband, Christopher, received a hospital bill charging roughly $12,000, including $4,836 for the nitrous oxide alone.
Nurse-midwife Karli-Rae Kerrschneider, 32, from Baldwin, Wisconsin, gave birth to her second child in December 2018. Pictured: Kerrschneider, right, breathing in nitrous oxide during labor with her husband Christopher
After using an epidural during her first labor, and not liking it, Kerrschenider opted for nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, to manage her pain over an epidural. Pictured: The Kerrscheniders with their son, Leviathan
According to Kerrschneider, her water birth, which is when a woman gives birth in a tub of warm water, at Hudson Hospital didn’t have any complications.
‘It was amazing. I would do it all over again,’ she told Kaiser Health News.
She and her son were in the hospital for two days after he was born before they were discharged.
Kerrschneider said she didn’t receive any other pain relief during her stay aside from nitrous oxide, which is 50 percent gas and 50 percent oxygen.
The gas is breathed through a mask held over the nose and mouth and is meant to help patients manage pain without losing feeling.
In recent years, there has been an increase in the number of hospitals that offer nitrous oxide to women in labor.
In 2011, less than 10 hospitals in the US offered nitrous oxide to women in labor, reported NPR in 2016.
Porter Instrument, one of the makers of nitrous oxide systems, told the media organization that, today, it services almost 300 hospitals and birth centers.
Nitrous oxide was common in the first half of the 20th century for women giving birth before more powerful drugs became available.
Epidural anesthesia, now used by more than 50 percent of women in labor, was introduced in the 1970s.
While it allows women to feel little to no sensation in the lower half of their bodies, epidurals have drawbacks, such as making movement difficult.
Nitrous oxide is very popular overseas and used by nearly 50 percent of women in childbirth in Canada and about 60 percent in the UK, reported The Atlantic.
Kerrschneider was charged $12,000 for her hospital stay, including $4,836 for the nitrous oxide alone. Pictured: Kerrschneider breathing in nitrous oxide during labor
She says this is about five times more than the hospital she works at charges. After negotiating with the hospital, the nitrous oxide was reduced to $496, leaving Kerrschneider to pay $3,635, including deductibles and co-pays. Pictured, left and right: The Kerrschneiders with their daughter Eleanor and son Leviathan
Most hospitals will charge between $100 to $500 for women to use the machine and gas.
When Kerrschneider first received the bill, she called the hospital, assuming she’d accidentally been charged for an epidural.
At the hospital she works at, Western Wisconsin Health in St Croix County, nitrous oxide only costs $100, reported Kaiser Health News.
Kerrschneider discovered she’d been charged per minute, in fact about $120 for every 15 minutes the tank was in her room, even if she wasn’t using it.
Her insurance company, Medica, refused to pay the bill because it was higher than the agreed upon rate it had made with Hudson Hospital.
After negotiating with the hospital, Kerrschneider’s charge for the nitrous oxide was reduced to $496, how much it would cost for one hour.
She says is this about five times more than the hospital she works at charges, according to Kaiser Health News.
In total – including the nitrous oxide charge, deductibles and co-pays – Kerrschneider paid $3,635, out of the nearly $12,000 bill.
‘I was just tired of dealing with it,’ she told Kaiser Health News ‘I had a newborn I was breastfeeding, and I didn’t want to have it hanging over my head anymore.’
Kerrschneider encourages other mothers-to-be, if they are considering using nitrous oxide during labor, to ask what the hospital charges so they don’t get surprised with an astronomically high bill like she was.