Having a Baby

Preparing for your new baby doesn’t need to be overwhelming. As your obstetrician or treating health professionals will tell you, you’ll have about 40 weeks of antenatal planning time if all goes well.
 

Babies need a lot of nappies but not all at once. How can you best manage your family’s cash flow? One way is to establish your family budget, which can help you understand where you’re spending and where you can save for what’s ahead.
 

A budget accounts for what you’ve got coming in (your ‘incomings’) as well as any money going out, such as regular bills (your ‘outgoings’). If that sounds like hard work, our online budget planner may help ease the load. You can add a category to the budget planner, New Baby, where you can itemise costs such as which car seat to purchase or hire to meet Australian standards or what style of pram and cot you may need?
 

Your budget planner can help you work out what you can afford and what you need to save.
 

We can also help with managing mortgage payments while you’re on leave. The options may help with cash flow. Our Parental Leave Options Checklist includes information on Parental Leave Mortgage Repayment Reductions; Mortgage Repayment Pauses; Parental Leave Home Lending. You can download the PDF (PDF 73KB) 

Understanding how you’re going to manage your household and financial situation is important, which is why having a conversation about the cost of having a baby helps everyone involved remain aware of what to expect.
 

You may want to talk through situations including:
 

• Managing everyday spending and saving.
• Your financial goals and priorities.
• What purchases you can put on hold.
• What debt you can pay off before the baby arrives.

We understand that money conversations can be difficult, which is why we’ve partnered with Interrelate, who are relationship experts, and put together our Sharing Finances quiz. Understand how you can work together financially to achieve what you both want.
 

Try out the quiz

There will be visits to health care professionals for check-ups, scans and tests. You need to consider where you will have your baby – private or public hospital or home - and how the labour and birth will be handled. Once your baby is born, you need to register the birth and register the baby for Medicare to access affordable health care. Here are some of the financial steps you may want to take to prepare for your new baby.
 

The Australian Federal Government offers payments to parents and families — some are one-off payments following the birth of a child while others are ongoing payments to support families or help with the cost of childcare.
 

Before your new baby arrives, check out your eligibility for government support services: Maternity & Parental Leave Pay; Dad & Partner Pay; Family Tax Benefit; Parenting Payment; Newborn payments.
 

You can register and submit a pre-birth claim for payments. Usually this can be done three months before the baby is due.
 

There are also various support payments, services and leave entitlements if you are adopting a child.
 

The Australian Government also provides support to grandparents, legal guardians and any other family member who provides full time care for a child.
 

Speak with your employer about leave entitlements. You can read more about parental leave and your entitlements here.
 

Put together a family budget and look at where you can reduce debts.
 

Here we’ve listed some cost-cutting strategies you may wish to consider:
 

• Talk to other parents and family members. They’re a great source of information on what you’ll need and use.
• Compare the cost of purchase to renting or borrowing items like prams or car seats.
• As your baby grows out of things think about selling them.

Prenatal care, also known as antenatal care, is about attending regular check-ups with health professionals, including your obstetrician, or midwives to treat and prevent potential health problems and ensure your chances of a healthy pregnancy and to promote healthy lifestyles that benefit both you and your newborn baby.
 

Postnatal care follows the birth of the baby and lasts for about 6 to 8 weeks. This is care aimed at ensuring both mother and baby and new parents thrive. Postnatal care can support you with any mental health issues you might experience, such as postnatal depression. It can also provide information to new parents on immunization, for example.