PROVO, Utah — A Utah father says he was charged to hold his newborn baby after his wife gave birth.
Ryan Grassley posted a photo of a bill from Utah Valley Hospital in Provo, Utah with the headline “I had to pay $39.35 to hold my baby after he was born,” to Reddit Monday. As of Tuesday afternoon, the photo had been viewed more than 2.8 million times.
The photo of the bill shows a charge for “Skin to Skin after C-Sect” for $39.35.
Grassley wrote on Reddit that the nurse let him hold baby Samuel on his wife Lidia’s chest and neck. He said they had a positive experience at the hospital.
The father told PIX11 he thought the bill was “funny and a bit ridiculous” so he decided to share it on Reddit.
“I had to pay $39.35 to hold my baby after he was born.”
Grassley told PIX11 he even started a GoFundMe account to raise $39 to pay for the charge.
As of 5 p.m., they have raised $5.
Many Reddit users expressed disgust at the bill, but one user, “FiftySixer,” pointed out, “As a labor and delivery nurse, I can kind of explain this. I didn’t know that hospitals charged for it, but doing ‘skin to skin’ in the operating room requires an additional staff member to be present just to watch the baby. We used to take all babies to the nursery once the NICU team made sure everything was okay. ‘Skin to skin’ in the OR is a relatively new thing and requires a second Labor and Delivery RN to come in to the OR and make sure the baby is safe.”
