Hospital Charges Dad $40 To Hold Newborn

Ryan Grassley was looking over the hospital bill he received after the birth of his son, Samuel, and one line grabbed him: $39.95 for "skin-to-skin" contact.

He had apparently been charged to hold his newborn son.

Grassley uploaded the photo of the receipt to Reddit, and the post has taken off. It's been up-voted more than 6,000 times and gotten over 11,000 comments.

But he isn't looking for a "witch hunt."

"I wasn't angry or upset," Grassley said Tuesday in an email to Patch. "It did seem a little ridiculous to see that stated on a bill, which is why I posted it to Reddit. But I wasn't looking to go on some kind of witch hunt. Our insurance paid most of the $40 fee, and life goes on."

While he blacked it out on the Reddit post, the name of the hospital is Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah.

Patch reached out to the hospital for comment, and spokeswoman Janet Frank sent us this email back, explaining the reasons for a charge such as the one Grassley incurred:

Due to patient privacy laws, I’m not able to comment on a particular bill without consent from the patient. In general, Utah Valley Hospital is an advocate for skin-to-skin contact between a mother and newborn directly after birth. Skin-to-skin is a best practice with proven benefits for both mom and baby. We do everything possible to allow skin-to-skin after both vaginal and c-section births. In the case of a c-section, where the bedside caregiver is occupied caring for the mother during surgery, an additional nurse is brought into the OR to allow the infant to remain in the OR suite with the mother. This is to ensure both patients remain safe. There is an additional charge associated with bringing an extra caregiver into the OR. The charge is not for holding the baby, but for the additional caregiver needed to maintain the highest levels of patient safety.

According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Survey of Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care, 72 percent of hospitals implemented skin-to-skin care for most women and babies for at least 30 minutes within an hour of uncomplicated vaginal birth.

For C-sections, the percentage is 59.2 percent. Some experts say skin-to-skin is not done after cesarean births because infants may suffer mild hypothermia, however studies have found that this is not the case.

"In the spirit of ridiculousness," Grassley says, he set up a GoFundMe to raise $39 for the charge. Tuesday afternoon it had raised $5.

But what is he going to do with the money raised? He says he's going to get a vasectomy.

"We have two kids and I think that is probably enough for us, although we do talk about adoption once in a while when life is more stable for us," Grassley said. "So I'll probably get it done, and I think it's important to do it soon after the baby is born. That way you don't have time to forget how much work it is to have a new baby, with the sleepless nights, diaper changes every 5 minutes, etc...

"So I want to get it done before I start to think, 'Hey, babies are fun and cute; we should do that again!'"

Photos courtesy of Ryan Grassley

Patch's Feroze Dhanoa contributed reporting.