Brother’s Keeper saves new family from financial nightmare, Melody Monteiro, Hebron, Ky.

*Editor’s note: This information was published in the August 2022 issue of Heartfelt Magazine, CHM’s monthly magazine that provides CHM membership-related tips and tricks, medical advice from doctors, testimonies from CHM members, and more. Please refer to the CHM Guidelines and applicable web pages for the most up-to-date information regarding CHM membership, sharing eligibility, and ministry news.*

My husband and I went together through the Ramsey Solutions’ Financial Peace University. Dave Ramsey stressed the importance of keeping the roof off of medical sharing limits, so we added Brother’s Keeper to my Gold membership. We’re so glad we did!

After finding out I was pregnant, I was thrilled—I was even excited the first time I got sick. However, all feelings of excitement quickly went away as I got sicker and sicker. I eagerly awaited the end of the first trimester when most people experience relief from pregnancy sickness, but I had second and third trimester nausea as well.

As I entered my third trimester, my feet, legs, hands, and face started to swell. We were preparing for a peaceful natural home birth, but when tests indicated beginning signs of preeclampsia, the midwife urged us to get checked at the local hospital.

We expected to be at the hospital for only a few hours; however, after some testing, the doctors said they wanted to keep me there for a few days. After further tests, they gave me an official preeclampsia diagnosis and warned us we might not be able to go home until the baby was born! When an ultrasound revealed an extra-small baby, the doctors knew the high blood pressure from the preeclampsia was already doing serious damage.

I was worried because I’d read in the CHM Guidelines that CHM normally doesn’t share the costs of both a midwife and an OBGYN. My husband made a quick call to CHM, and the staff member who answered reassured us that our CHM family would shoulder our additional maternity complication costs.* He also told us they would be covering us in prayer. That gave me tremendous peace as they wheeled me into the operating room.

After surgery, they lifted up my 2 lb. 10 oz. baby boy for me to get a quick view of him for a brief moment before whisking him off to the NICU. The next month-and-a-half was spent traveling back and forth to the NICU. We felt like we were dreaming when he was finally healthy enough to come home.

Ever since I was a little girl, I’d dreamed about being a mom. However, my happy dreams soon turned into nightmares. Jesus taught us so much during this time—most of all to rest in His grace and goodness and trust Him. It’s hard feeling so out of control, but that’s when we realize Jesus has us in His everlasting arms. Even though the past year was a physical and emotional nightmare, thanks to Jesus and our CHM family, it wasn’t the financial nightmare it could have been.

With our planned home birth, the total cost of the pregnancy would have only been around $5,700. But, we hadn’t imagined the mountain of bills would pile up to around $366,050 before discounts! I absolutely recommend the Gold Maternity Program and would urge adding Brother’s Keeper. The unexpected can happen to anyone!

*Editor’s note: All CHM decisions are based on the CHM Guidelines.