CNN - Seven kids don't come cheap

November 20, 1997
Web posted at: 10:25 a.m. EST (1525 GMT)

(CNN) -- After the successful delivery of all seven of her babies, 29-year-old Bobbi McCaughey can now focus on raising her four sons and three new daughters. Those seven bundles of joy, however, will exact a heavy financial toll, potentially running into the millions of dollars.

The cost for the delivery of twins is estimated to be 10 times more than the birth of a single baby. The routine birth of triplets can cost around $100,000.

For Bobbi McCaughey, who's been hospitalized since mid-October so doctors could closely monitor her condition, her hospital bill alone already runs into the tens of thousands of dollars.

The McCaugheys have insurance, and a fund to help them with expenses has been set up at a local bank. But published reports had indicated that the hospital bill, if all seven continued to survive, could run from $600,000 to as much as $1 million.

Ken McCaughey Sr., the babies' paternal grandfather, declined to say who would pay those massive bills.

"With our faith, we're just going to rely on the Lord, and he'll supply," Ken McCaughey told ABC-TV's "Nightline".

The McCaughey family will soon find out how much that faith will provide.

The infants arrived Wednesday by Cesarean section in six minutes, from 12:48 p.m. to 12:54 p.m. All seven were in serious condition in a neonatal intensive care unit. One baby, Joel Steven, was at first listed in critical condition but was later upgraded to serious.

For the McCaugheys, the real financial toll is most likely to arise after the babies come home from the hospital. They can expect to shell out several hundred thousand dollars to raise each of their seven children until the age of 17.

The Department of Agriculture estimates a family with a child born in 1995 will spend more than $239,000 on necessities to raise that child for the next 17 years. That estimate does not factor in the cost of childbearing or the cost of a college education.

At least the McCaugheys will not have to worry about paying for diapers. Procter & Gamble Co. announced Wednesday that it is giving the family a lifetime supply of Pampers for the seven children.

A Procter & Gamble public affairs manager estimated that babies usually stay in diapers for more than two years, with each child going through about 4,500 diapers -- or an estimated 31,500 for the McCaughey kids.

Correspondent Dan Ronan contributed to this report.