Should you insure your baby?

Should you insure your baby? Well, put it this way: now that you have a baby bump, you don’t need any other bumps in the road.

 Those who have held that little bundle in their arms, or seen two lines on the pregnancy test, will know just what it is like to suddenly be a mom and how amazing it is – you’re not sure what Cosmic Approval Process let that one through, but you sure are glad. Your pregnancy is life changing and it somehow finds its way into your every waking moment …. trust us!

Some people may not get how you can be ecstatic and absolutely terrified about the road ahead at exactly the same time. There are very few things apart from a call to your mother that will assuage the constant thinking, worrying and planning but, surprisingly, insurance is one of them.

Why life insurance during pregnancy might work

  1. To help ease the ‘what to expect when you’re expecting’ nerves.

Most of a women’s stress during pregnancy is not for themselves, but for the baby. Specifically, angst around the birth and whether the baby will be completely healthy following the birth. The MiLittleLife Birth Benefit offered exclusively by MiWayLife offers cover of up to R180 000 for 14 of the most Should You Insure Your Babycommon and severe conditions affecting new-borns at birth. The product provides cover for several conditions affecting the baby and includes things such as Down’s Syndrome, Cerebal Palsy, Cleft Lip and Club Feet.

  1. To help ease the what comes next

For those expecting for the first time, you may soon begin to appreciate that the birth is not the destination but merely part of the journey and therefore the worrying doesn’t diminish after the birth. In fact, the bigger your little one gets, the more scrapes they can get into! Newborn cover which evolves naturally into child insurance can take the sting out of this both emotionally and financially, with cover for conditions your tot might develop only after birth. A reassuring 79 conditions, plus a catch all, are covered by MiLittleLife’s Child Benefit, including ICU admission costs and dog bites, plus more specialised congenital issues such as Cleft Palate surgery.

  1. Because insurers can be people too.

MiWayLife has developed the birth benefit to cover your growing baby bump for a minimum of R20,000 from the first premium and a maximum of R180,000 depending on when the policy was taken. And in the case of pregnancy brain, the offering is human – in case of any missed premiums, there won’t be any penalties; your cover will remain in place. While the amount won’t grow, it won’t shrink either!

  1. Because doing something will empower you.

Finally, investigating cover for you and your baby might just help psychologically. There is so much that can feel frustratingly outside of your control, from when you fall pregnant to the endless worrying over possible complications during the pregnancy and birth. There’s not a lot you can do to prevent complications from happening, but doing something that might offer you a safety net if things go wrong can help ease your troubled mind. Because you’ve done everything that you can possibly do, and that helps a little.

Things life insurance won’t – or might not – work for:

  1. As a supplement to normal insurance.

The other forms of insurance cover are also there for a reason. It is important that anyone who has any reason to believe they’ll be in hospital in the next two years – like expectant moms – have medical aid, gap cover and life insurance. This doesn’t have to be as overwhelming as it sounds. Call up your medical aid or life insurer and ask specific questions about your products. ‘Am I covered for water birth? What about gynae visits? How many? What about anti-nausea meds?’ Ask all of it, because having a baby can be like a wedding: for 8 out of 10 ladies, it costs a lot more than you think from unexpected expenses that add up.

  1. As a get-out-of-work-free card.

Pregnancy insurance will seldom if ever cover extra leave taken after one’s maternity leave is up. Better insurance products will allow a payout in cash that mothers can choose to use as ‘extra income’ in lieu of leave, but that could leave them high and dry if their baby should fall ill. So, the best policy here is an honest conversation with your boss. That way, your working relationship is secure should you suddenly find yourself needing to take days off if baby requires a procedure.

  1. As a substitute for good, old-fashioned relaxation.

Insurance during your pregnancy is there to smooth over the little, and bigger, bumps in the road. It gives that extra peace of mind when you’re in the waiting room for the umpteenth time, and takes the financial fear out of the doctor’s statement: ‘we need to run a few more tests.’ However, it’s not a silver bullet for your own state of mind. Insurance can work wonders for your balance sheet, but it works best in tandem with you actively de-stressing, doing pregnancy-safe exercise that boosts dopamine and getting support from various sources, especially if you don’t have a partner walking through it with you.

A Last Word

“At MiWayLife, we are constantly working at reimagining life insurance and this presented us with an ideal opportunity in one of the areas that remains under or unserved by the insurance market,” says CEO Craig Baker. “We all know that although the possibility of something unforeseen happening to one of your children is upsetting and frightening, it does not change the reality that bad things happen to good people. Simply spending a few minutes investigating the options and getting the cover in place will provide you with both financial and emotional protection

 

To get a life insurance quote – for you or your baby – complete and submit the request form on this page

 

All info was correct at time of publishing