The reasons for an emergency fund

[pierre]

Attempting to stay home to VBAC......Insanity. One word.

the intent was definitely not to VBAC at home. Was she supposed to go to the hospital with her first contraction?

[Hatton]

the intent was definitely not to VBAC at home. Was she supposed to go to the hospital with her first contraction?

I am glad you were not attempting to VBAC at home.

[Hatton]

We had an ED doc ( spouse was also a doc but can't remember the specialty) a few years back who just did a regular delivery at home and they lost the baby in the process. I'll never understand what would posses a physician to do such a thing after all the bad outcomes we see. And I don't know how you move on from doing such a stupid thing with such a horrifying outcome. I can't tell if that previous poster meant they were planning to do a VBAC at home or just labor to a certain point but I sure hope it was the latter. Unfortunately babies come whenever the $%&* they want to so it's lucky it ended as well as it did!

I have been involved in more than one uterine rupture. It happens. Why risk it. If it happens in hospital usually everything works out.

[wideopenspaces]

the intent was definitely not to VBAC at home. Was she supposed to go to the hospital with her first contraction?

Well if you want an epidural, yes 😆 For a number of reasons both of my kids were induced but my chief personal reason for this is I didn't want to risk having to deliver a baby without pain meds!

[pierre]

Well if you want an epidural, yes 😆 For a number of reasons both of my kids were induced but my chief personal reason for this is I didn't want to risk having to deliver a baby without pain meds!

She was on the fence about meds. But like you said before, babies come when they want. We thought we had time, and then we didn’t. I’m definitely glad things worked out ok

[Nysoz]

My unpopular opinion is that a traditional 3-6-12 month emergency fund in cash isn't necessary (especially if enough cheap money is available) but may need to be part of an emergency plan.

All of these could be paid off on a credit card and paid off on time as you mobilize the money needed to pay it off. You can put the expenses on a 0% APR credit card for a year and pay it off later on. You can withdraw money using cheap margin or use a HELOC. You can just sell some stock/bonds for the cash needed.

Any of these are just as viable as a cash fund long as a person understands the terms and risks involved. This allows a person to keep money working for them as significantly large unplanned expenses, especially ones that require cash, are thankfully rare.

[Tim]

My unpopular opinion is that a traditional 3-6-12 month emergency fund in cash isn't necessary (especially if enough cheap money is available) but may need to be part of an emergency plan.

All of these could be paid off on a credit card and paid off on time as you mobilize the money needed to pay it off. You can put the expenses on a 0% APR credit card for a year and pay it off later on. You can withdraw money using cheap margin or use a HELOC. You can just sell some stock/bonds for the cash needed.

Any of these are just as viable as a cash fund long as a person understands the terms and risks involved. This allows a person to keep money working for them as significantly large unplanned expenses, especially ones that require cash, are thankfully rare.

As long as someone does not take a Zero down doctor's loan and is stretching the cash flow for the "appreciation". A lot of those planned sources may have been already tapped. Those mortgages that are 3x and 4x's compensation on a 30 year mortgage to fit it in the budget typically end up being a liquidity problem.

[billy]

Glad mom and baby are doing fine- congrats!

Multiple arguments here about EF vs no EF and keep money invested. Your story, and mine 4 -6 months ago, are the rare types where everything comes at you like Murphys law and an EF helps, both financially but more importantly mentally - so you can focus on caring for your loved ones instead of moving money around/loans etc. The mental stress aspect is often overlooked. But I will concede an EF is like insurance- yes strictly financially speaking money invested usually will win out over an EF.

[MPMD]

Our second child is coming up on a week old now. We also have a HDHP and I am not looking forward to the bill, but will be able to pay it.

We also will have an unexpected expense though. My wife was laboring at home like she planned on. It was a VBAC and we were prepared for labor to take forever. It was going fine for a few hours then she thought it stalled. Then all of a sudden she went from 0-60 in about 5 minutes, water broke, and she couldn’t walk. So she got to ride in an ambulance to the hospital. Baby was crowning when we rolled into the room. 25 minutes later he was here, happy and healthy.

As an aside, they sent a fire truck and an ambulance, which I expect, and both only had men. They all pretty much refused to look at her nether regions and see if a baby was coming. They had a second ambulance meet them on the way with a women who finally checked her and said the baby was turtle heading. Seems weird to me that you can have a job as an emergency responder, but decide there are certain emergencies you don’t respond too. Anyway, if they try to charge us extra for another ambulance, that is a bill I would argue about paying.

not to derail, but i think this would be worth a call to the EMS quality officer if your region.

if they didn't follow the SOP someone should know.

i wasn't there, but this limited info strikes me as very bad prehospital practice especially in VBAC, how many paramedics and firemen couldn't do a visual inspection for a presenting part? pretty important info for me to know as an ER doc.... "rule out labor" vs. "there is one foot and a lot of blood."

former = let's find a room and plan to do a quick transfer to L+D
latter = OB/NICU to bedside in resus bay, baby warmer on, OB tray opened, hold an OR

[Hatton]

Lots of potential bad here.

[childay]

A favorite movie of mine is Nic Cage’s “Bringing Out the Dead”. A version of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” in the setting of EMS and not psychiatry…

Oooh need to rewatch that for sure!

[nephron]

Yes, I agree. I am glad that the op had sufficient funds to pay for their medical expenses, but I would view this less as an emergency and more as a planned medical expense. If you are planning on having a baby, you should plan for the expenses associated with that baby. Similar to how college tuition is not an "emergency" expense.

[Zaphod]

Glad mom and baby are doing fine- congrats!

Multiple arguments here about EF vs no EF and keep money invested. Your story, and mine 4 -6 months ago, are the rare types where everything comes at you like Murphys law and an EF helps, both financially but more importantly mentally - so you can focus on caring for your loved ones instead of moving money around/loans etc. The mental stress aspect is often overlooked. But I will concede an EF is like insurance- yes strictly financially speaking money invested usually will win out over an EF.

In this vein since you're usually building up an EF, I dont even see much downside to investing at all, since it will be dca'd over time. Sure if you lump summed at the top that would hurt, but if you built it up in a more normal over time fashion you've already decreased the likelihood that happens by a lot.

[bovie]

My unpopular opinion is that a traditional 3-6-12 month emergency fund in cash isn't necessary (especially if enough cheap money is available) but may need to be part of an emergency plan.

All of these could be paid off on a credit card and paid off on time as you mobilize the money needed to pay it off. You can put the expenses on a 0% APR credit card for a year and pay it off later on. You can withdraw money using cheap margin or use a HELOC. You can just sell some stock/bonds for the cash needed.

Any of these are just as viable as a cash fund long as a person understands the terms and risks involved. This allows a person to keep money working for them as significantly large unplanned expenses, especially ones that require cash, are thankfully rare.

Yes.

Taxable accounts are highly liquid, and cash drag is very real.

[pierre]

not to derail, but i think this would be worth a call to the EMS quality officer if your region.

if they didn't follow the SOP someone should know.

i wasn't there, but this limited info strikes me as very bad prehospital practice especially in VBAC, how many paramedics and firemen couldn't do a visual inspection for a presenting part? pretty important info for me to know as an ER doc.... "rule out labor" vs. "there is one foot and a lot of blood."

former = let's find a room and plan to do a quick transfer to L+D
latter = OB/NICU to bedside in resus bay, baby warmer on, OB tray opened, hold an OR

Thank you for the advice. I spoke to their medical director. He said they deviated from standard of care and transport was delayed unnecessarily. He offered a few reasons/excuses as to why it happened, boiling it down to a personnel problem and that there will be more training to improve care in the future.