February 23, 2010

Having Children is a Costly Business

Did you see the news this week that having a child costs the parents a mere £200,000? I am not quite sure just how they arrived at such an eye-watering figure – but presumably it doesn’t include designer baby wear or champagne instead of baby milk.

All of which got me wondering why is it that some people are so determined to have children. We spend all our teenage years being urged to ‘be careful’ - then apparently spontaneously suffer fertility problems in later age. Now we are told one in six couples have difficulty conceiving. Although I suppose on the plus side striving for a baby does have its moments.

All of which brings me to the tricky subject of IVF. It costs £5000 for one course – and involves all sort of unpleasant procedures. Up to three courses are necessary for success apparently. Yet the NHS only funds one treatment. Which kind of suggests either the NHS is a heartless organisation. Or the government has decided that the NHS is not here to provide babies.

But if IVF is so unpleasant, why are there so many couples queuing up at private infertility clinics to pay through the nose for treatment? Maybe they haven’t heard of something called Duofertility that was in the news recently.

Duofertility is the brainchild of a group of Cambridge University scientists – and is so effective that they promise to refund the purchase price if you don’t get pregnant in one year. Interestingly Duofertility is also proving to be at least as effective as IVF for couples experiencing real difficulty in conceiving at a tenth of the cost.

As Duofertility is as simple as wearing a patch – and offers a stylish hand-held device that tell you when you are fertile up to a week in advance I know which I would rather try. And whilst £500 might seem rather a lot to try and have a baby, maybe now we know that actually having a baby costs £200,000 – I guess by that yardstick it is a bit of a bargain