So They Say You Can’t Travel With Kids…

The finer points of being pregnant while traveling.

Who else has heard the phrase, “you’re so lucky you can do this before you have kids”, or “take advantage of it now while you can”, or other such phrases insinuating that traveling (and life) is over once you have a baby on the way?

Not that we are out to prove anyone wrong, but as two adventurers at heart we couldn’t bear the thought of holing up in a house in the ‘burbs to raise our kids, even if that house was complete with a white picket fence. And to prove ourselves right, we unexpectedly found ourselves pregnant while we were nearing the end of a travel contract in California around this time last year.

We had no other option except to “figure it out” and move forward!

Now Kinley is nearly 5 moths old and we’ve been getting a lot of questions regarding the details of being pregnant while traveling: how insurance worked, how we went about changing doctors, contract timing and moving, planning for baby’s arrival, and planning jobs and childcare for traveling with a kid in tow.  I’ve exchanged messages with some other adventurous mama’s-to-be who have asked some great questions regarding the nitty-gritty details, and so hopefully expounding on these answers will be helpful to anyone else who plans to follow the path less traveled!

This post is long, but bear with me. The alternative is to wait another 3-4 months for Kinley to allow me the time to put part 2 out!

**The following suggestions are based on my experiences and situation, and are in no way meant to be a prescription of how to handle pregnancy as a traveler. I recommend each person do their research, consult their physician, and make a wise choice based on your own circumstances!

How did you handle insurance?

We found out we were pregnant with Kinley right after we had declined an extension in CA, knowing that we needed to move on or become permanent residents there! With this break between contracts happening at the beginning of the year (and my deductible starting over anyway) I looked into whether it was better to continue taking company insurance, or get my own plan through the marketplace,  esurance.com, etc. 

We opted to continue my company sponsored plan after considering several things that were specific to our scenario, and may be totally different for you: 

• I planned to stay in contract with the same company until Kinley’s birth in August, so my deductible would carry through and apply to all medical visits throughout pregnancy (this is a risk I took, and luckily it panned out!)
• I compared similar individual plans, and our company’s plan was better and more affordable than plans available through other venues at that time.
• It made better financial sense: I had the benefit of our travel company paying part of my monthly premium as long as I was in contract. For example, if my total monthly premium is $400, I paid $50 on each paycheck, and they paid $50 on each paycheck. If I opted to not take company insurance, then my net pay would improve by only $50/paycheck, or $200 per month and I would be footing the bill for the other $200/month that could have been paid out by the company.

What did you do for insurance when your contract ended?

I chose to continue the insurance plan through my company through COBRA, which allows you up to 60 days to opt in to the continuation of your company sponsored insurance plan. But isn’t COBRA insanely expensive? Not really. And it’s important that you understand how COBRA works when you are contemplating using it. You still end up paying for your portion of the premium, but additionally you pay for the portion that was previously sponsored by your company. So now my insurance payment was ~$400/month, using the previous example.  The reason it may seem to be expensive, is if you wait until day 59 to opt in to it, then you back-pay the full premium for those 59 days, along with the full premium going forward, BUT your coverage is also retroactively dated to your last day worked.

How did you get coverage for Kinley when your contract ended?

Per my insurance plan, a child is covered for their birth month under the mother’s policy – for me, this was my company policy through COBRA. The next month, they are required to be added as a dependent. It’s important to check how your plan deals with coverage at birth.

Kinley was born in August, so my premium for August was  ~$400. In September it jumped up to ~$1200, an additional $800 for adding her as a dependent. In October we both switched to become dependents under Steve’s insurance plan. This essentially erased the deductible we had been paying towards my plan during the early part of the year, but we considered that since we are healthy we wouldn’t need insurance coverage other than preventive, which was covered at 100% on Steve’s plan. 

One thing I have learned is that having and using insurance requires CONSTANT monitoring! Even though I had contacted my plan ahead of time to determine coverage for maternity appointments and a hospital birthing process as well as coverage for Kinley, I STILL got bills from the hospital and pediatrician stating that she had no insurance at time of birth and that I was responsible for it entirely to a pretty tune of ~$5,000 just for Kinley’s part alone! Fortunately for me, I knew my plan and with a few phone calls I was able to get that coverage applied for Kinley and those charges were reversed. Be an advocate for yourself!

How did you plan for maternity leave?

As soon as we found out we were pregnant we began sketching out the scenario that we wanted for her birth, and then worked backwards to plan out the months leading up to her due date.

It was an easy decision to plan the location in Durango, CO – our hometown. We wanted her to be a Colorado Native, and I wanted to deliver her with the help of Brie, my OB friend who practices there. We decided arbitrarily that taking 2 months off for her birth would be good for us as a family, and purposely chose to start those two months at least 3 weeks prior to her due date, to account for time to travel back to Durango and the off-chance that she might arrive early! (37 weeks is considered full term for delivery)

As travelers, FMLA is not an option, due to all company benefits ending at the completion of your contract.  With this in mind, we decided to self-fund our 2 month maternity/paternity leave. With the help of our recruiter we sought out 2 high paying contracts that netted approximately $2000/week to help us towards this goal. We budgeted for needing 20,000 for two months off to cover all our expenses including co-payments and insurance with some cushion to spare.

Short Term Disability (STD)

I did look into short-term disability, but found that I was not eligible for it. The plan sponsored by our company required enrollment for at least 12 months prior to an occurrence in order for coverage to kick in, and I was not enrolled at the time.

Each company and plan may be different, so I recommend looking up the plan sponsored by your company if you want to benefit from this option. I have heard that certain STD plans coverage only allow up to 10 weeks, with the first 2 weeks un-paid, and then 8 weeks paid. For your situation, you should check with your company’s plan.

State plans

I have also heard that certain states have “better” maternity coverage than others, but you would not qualify in a state where you were a traveler unless you were a resident of that state, from what I understand. I would recommend investigating further on this one for your specific state.

How did you manage medical visits when on the move?

We planned to be in contract out of state for the second and most of the third trimester. Fortunately, I already had established care with Brie in Durango and was able to schedule a visit with her during week 11 while we were between contracts and again for three consecutive weeks when we returned to Durango leading up to delivery.

When we arrived to our contract in Tacoma at the end of the first trimester, I found a local OB-GYN with whom to have all of my prenatal visits while on contract. I randomly found the best OB who we both loved, and we both ended up being sad not to be able to deliver with both her and our friend in Durango! Early on visits are only every month, then in the third trimester they transition to bi-monthly visits.

A few things to consider:

• ALWAYS make sure providers are covered, and also the hospital where you plan to give birth (and the hospital where you are on contract, in case of a premature delivery!) – I found that the best way to be certain is to check with my insurance company. When I talked to the billing department of certain providers, I was erroneously told that all of their providers were covered by my insurance – which could have been a huge catastrophe! This includes later on when you start making pediatrician visits – always check with insurance. If you have difficulty finding a doctor who is covered in your new area, call your insurance company and they can provide you with a list.
• Make sure to transfer your medical records between offices; usually this is a simple task such as filling out a medical release form for your current office to send your records to the next office.
• Typically, you don’t get to choose which doctor delivers your baby; you likely will end up having whoever is on call anyway. The only way that I was guaranteed to have Brie is that we scheduled an induction after my due date on a day when she was on call, so our plan worked out perfectly!
• I recommend establishing care with an OB who is local to your travel position, even if you are able drive a few hours home to see your regular OB for visits. Emergencies, such as pre-eclampsia or miscarriage can happen, and it is re-assuring to have an MD who is local!

*This is only based on my experience. I chose to have a hospital birth with an MD, so obviously if your plan is a home birth or with a mid-wife, these suggestions may not apply to you!

What was it like being pregnant as a traveler?

Moving mid-pregnancy: As I mentioned, we moved and changed jobs twice during my pregnancy. Once around 11 weeks, and once at 37 weeks. I consider my pregnancy to have been relatively easy. But don’t underestimate the stresses and emotions you may be going through! At 11 weeks, I was quite nauseous and emotional, and at 37 weeks I was quite large, emotional, and stressed! But, even at 37 weeks, I was able to do way more than is usually expected of a pregnant woman – we finished our contract at 2pm on a Friday, were out of our apartment by 4pm that day, and drove 5 hours to kick off a 5 day road trip back to Durango! I was still able to pack and clean the apartment and help load up, all but the super heavy stuff. One thing to consider is that you are at greater risk of blood clots when pregnant, so take frequent rest breaks to break up the driving!

Changing jobs mid-pregnancy: There was a concern in my mind that I would be treated differently being pregnant, and that I would have to prove myself so that my new employers knew that I could still handle a contract while I was pregnant. On the contrary, I don’t think they even noticed I was pregnant till the last month! (thanks to scrubs). Treating an employee differently is discrimination, and therefore illegal. I was also re-assured by our amazing recruiter and my MD that it’s unnecessary to disclose pregnancy to your employer unless you want to. 

Healthy pregnancy while on contract: I did have concerns throughout my contract was that I would deliver early, or have health complications that would interfere with completing my contract. I will give credit to some lifestyle changes associated with exercise and diet in the years leading up to my pregnancy for the reward of having a perfectly healthy pregnancy! I craved healthy food throughout, and completed short trail runs right up to 36 weeks (and only stopped because of our move). I had no restrictions in lifting or work related activities from my OB, so there was no need for job modification. If you have concerns about complications or your pregnancy interfering with your contract, I recommend discussing these with your doctor.

How did you time your contracts during pregnancy?

Being pregnant certainly puts a deadline on your plans in a way that other scheduling conflicts don’t! When we found out we were pregnant, we calculated that we had time for 2 contracts following the end of our current contract, so we could potentially travel to 2 different places. Realistically, things don’t always go as planned, especially when your fingerprints for a new license have to be repeated! We ended up taking one full contract and extending for an additional 10 weeks, our end date was right around the 37 week mark of pregnancy. 

This all worked extremely well for us, to complete a contract with a short extension and have time to move back home prior to delivery. In any case, I highly recommend you leave room for some flexibility in your plan, and also have a scenario B in your mind.

Financial planning for traveling while pregnant

We were completely surprised when we found out we were pregnant… but in our whole 7 year relationship, I can’t think of a better time for a surprise pregnancy! We had completely paid off our grad school loans, had a sizable chunk set aside for a down-payment should we need it, and were also investing substantially.

As mentioned before, we drew up a generous budget of $20,000 to cover all expenses during our 2 months off, and began saving. Turns out, with unexpected costs factored in, this was a safe amount to save as we ended up paying nearly $5,000 out of pocket for medical expenses and COBRA premiums (and then received most of the medical expenses back in refunds and reimbursements).

It’s shocking how much pregnancy and a hospital birth cost!  My insurance company was billed approximately 25K, of which I was responsible for $4,575 out of pocket. An additional benefit that I discovered sometime during this whole process is that our company sponsors a Health Reimbursement Account for all employees, and so my cost was essentially only $500 plus insurance premiums once the reimbursements were applied.

Our maternity savings only covered the first 2 months of both of us being unemployed. So we also did the math on what it would look like to go from being DINKS (Double Income No Kids) to a one-income family for a time, which would allow me to stay home with Kinley during her early months.  Here again, we are not only grateful to have paid off our loans, but also extremely thankful to be travelers! With Steve alone taking travel contracts in the months after Kinley’s birth, he has been able to bring home a salary equivalent to nearly both our salaries combined when we were perm staff!

What about sorting out childcare?

This topic will be re-visited in a later post, as we have yet to experience it! Some options we have considered are an agency au pair, using care.com, personally hiring a nanny, and daycare.  We have conjectured that the easiest way to move forward while traveling with Kinley will be to stay in one location for 6-12 months at a time, to minimize turnover of caregivers for her benefit.

We are thankful for the lifestyle that traveling therapy has allowed us, including the flexibility for me to stay at home with Kinley during her early months. She is nearly 5 months old now, and I will continue to stay home with her until she is just over 7 months old. What other job allows for this?! Traveling also offers us the flexibility to alternate who takes a contract, if desired, so that she can continue to have a parent stay home with her as we see fit.  Or potentially one of us could work PRN if needed. We often tell ourselves, why would we NOT continue traveling, considering all the flexibility and benefits it allows us?

Regardless of what path we choose, I am confident that we will be able to find a solution and make it work. Together, we will solve each potential obstacle as it comes, just as we did throughout pregnancy as travelers!

Written by: Ellen Stockhausen