Anne Christian Buchanan has very well said that “To be pregnant is to be vitally alive, thoroughly woman, and distressingly inhabited. Soul and spirit are stretched – along with body – making pregnancy a time of transition, growth, and profound beginnings.”
Maternity is one of the most beautiful and important phases of a couple’s life. 
This is the time when your life is going to take a new turn and everything will be different not only for the mother but also for the entire family. With a new member added to your family, there is also going to be an addition to your expenses. So in order to ensure better and pre-natal and post-natal period a well-constructed maternity insurance plan is necessary, which will not only help in easing off the increasing of child and mother care but also let you embrace your parenthood.
The maternity insurance plan is basically an add-on rider with the general health insurance plan, which covers maternity costs. In a large number of corporate maternity is an addition to incorporate group policies with the sub-limit of not exceeding Rs.50000. The benefit of a maternity insurance plan is it covers various expenses like:
- Hospitalization- it covers pre-hospitalization expenses up to 30 days prior to the date of delivery and post-hospitalization expenses up to 60 days.
- Hospitalization cost- this includes nurse and surgeon, room charges, medical practitioner fee, emergency ambulance charges, anesthetist consultation charges.
- It covers expenditure related to both normal and cesarean delivery along with post-delivery complications for the mother.
- Day to day checkups.
- Checkups of your newborn till 90 days if they are diagnosed with any health issue or critical illness.
In most of corporate houses women employees are also provided with maternity insurance along with their health insurance.
Thus, we have come with the top 5 maternity insurance plans available in India:
- Religare Joy Health Insurance Plan-
The entry age to buy this plan starts from 18 for an adult and goes till 65. There are two sum insured options available under this plan for maternity expenses i.e. of rupees 3 lakh and 5 lakh. This plan also offers hospitalization expenses wherein pre-hospitalization is covered up to 30 days prior to delivery and post-hospitalization up to 60 days. The waiting can range from 9 months to 24 months. It also provides newborn baby coverage varying from Rs. 30000 to 50000, depending upon the sum assured. This policy also covers expenses like vaccination, pre & postnatal expenses and lawful medical termination expenses. The policy period for this plan is 3 years.
2. Cigna TTK’s Pro Health Insurance plus Plan-
the entry age in order to buy this plan is 18 years for an adult and 91 days for a newborn baby and there no maximum age. Here the maternity expenses covered up to are Rs.15000 for normal delivery and Rs.25000 for C-section. It does cover hospitalization expenses but not for maternity. The waiting period for this plan 48 months but it can be reduced to 24 months with additional premium. Newborn baby expenses are also not covered but can be till 90 days only if an additional premium is paid. The only expense which this policy covers is vaccination that too for 1 year. Expenses like pre-natal and post-natal is not covered but lawful termination expenses are. The policy period ranges from 1 to 2 years.
3. Apollo Munich Easy Health Insurance-
The minimum entry age to buy this maternity plan is 5 years and the maximum age is 65 years. There are three sum insured options available under this plan for maternity expenses i.e. Rs.3-5 lakh wherein Rs.15000 is for normal delivery and Rs. 25000 for C-section, another sum insured available is Rs.7.50 lakh and Rs.10 lakh wherein Rs.25000 for normal delivery and Rs.40000 for C-section, the third sum insured available is Rs. 15 lakh, 25 lakh and 50 lakh wherein Rs.30000 for normal delivery and Rs.50000 for C-section. Hospitalization expenses are under this plan but not for maternity. The waiting period ranges from 36 months to 48 months and can be reduced to 24 months with an additional premium. Newborn baby charges are covered till 90 days only by paying an additional premium. It does not cover vaccination expenses. The policy period for this plan is 1.2 years. Pre-natal, post-natal and lawful medical termination charges are covered under this plan.
4. Star Health wedding gift insurance plan-
The wedding insurance plan covers a maximum two deliveries. It covers both pre-natal and post-natal and childbirth expenses. The maximum cover available under this plan is of Rs.10 lakh. Newborn baby expenses are also covered under this plan including congenital diseases. Waiting for this policy is of 3 years and if there are any complications to mother after delivery then expenses related to that are also covered under this plan. To the maximum amount of Rs.1000 clinical tests are also covered. In this plan the coverage is extended only after the waiting period of 27 months.
5. Max Bupa Heartbeat family floater plan-
The best part about this plan is that it covers both maternity and newborn baby expenses under its three plans, which are gold, silver, and platinum. Under this plan vaccination charges up to the first year of the newborn are covered. The waiting period for this plan is two years. Under this plan, a maximum of two deliveries is covered.
Therefore, it is important to get maternity insurance both for the family and baby, as keeps you away from the stress and nightmare of paying huge medical bills and also eases your path for medical checkups. Maternity insurance acts as a financial backup for one and also provides mother and baby with good quality healthcare. These plans also help the family prepare themselves for complications faced during pregnancy and acts as a support system for them. Thus, we can say that with a well-constructed maternity insurance plan one can easily treasure the beautiful moments before and after pregnancy without any stress.