When you become pregnant, you begin thinking about the world differently. Your whole world will soon change forever, and you want to ensure that your child is able to live in a safe environment. This includes your financial environment.

Oftentimes, we have people ask us the question: “Can I get life insurance if I am pregnant?” I wanted to take the time to answer this question in depth in order to give pregnant women and their significant others insight into the life insurance coverage options for pregnant women and to protect your young family.

This article helps to answer some frequently asked questions about life insurance for pregnant women.

Common Questions About Life Insurance for Pregnant Women

Can You Get Life Insurance if You Are Pregnant?

Yes. Life insurance companies will not turn you away because you are pregnant unless you are in your third trimester. Pregnant women looking for life insurance are not as uncommon as you may think, and thanks to modern technology, pregnancy is not as dangerous as it once was.

Does Being Pregnant Affect Life My Life Insurance Rates?

In most cases, being pregnant typically doesn’t even change the rates you are offered.

The main reason is that your costs are based on your health—specifically, things that are going to decrease the longevity of your lifespan. These include heart diseases, smoking, diabetes, etc. Pregnancy does not fall under this category.

However, most insurance companies won’t offer coverage once your pregnancy enters the third trimester. Also, your pregnancy weight gain might affect your rates, so for that reason, it might make sense to wait.

Should Pregnant Women Get Life Insurance?

It is easy to understand how life insurance becomes a thought once you are pregnant. You are turning a new leaf and will now need to be more responsible than you have ever been in your life.

As parents having children, it is important to have life insurance for a couple of reasons:

6 Reasons Pregnant Women Should Get Life Insurance 

1. Protect Your Income

If you are pregnant, very shortly, you will have your first dependent on your income. Overall, your child depends on your income in order to survive, even for a few years, until they are able to fend for themselves.

You want to be able to ensure that your child will have income replacement in the event that you are unable to work or gone. While it is not something pleasant to think about, it is an important thing to plan for. Life insurance helps you to do this.

2. Life Insurance for Your Child

As a parent also have the option to insure your child. While it is tragic to think about, if your child needs medical care or tragically passes away, this can cause financial turmoil on top of emotional pain.

You can protect your child while they are young with a policy that is paid for in full and turned over to them when they are an adult. This is sometimes offered as a rider on term and permanent life insurance policies and can also be purchased separately as its own policy.

3. Cover Debts

Life insurance also serves as a way to protect your loved ones from inheriting your debt in the event of your death.

Mortgage payments, car loans, outstanding credit card debt, etc… all account for this debt. As you plan a family and your family grows, you will likely go through a stage where you accumulate more debt before your income eventually allows you to chip away at it as you approach retirement.

4. Plan for College

Life insurance can be used as a tool to help plan for college for your child. Life insurance policies for children can be taken out, which eventually builds cash value and can be handed off to children once they become adults, which in the life insurance world can be between the ages of 18 and 25 (per policy).

With the cost of college increasing every year, life insurance is perfect for pregnant women who plan on sending their children to college.

5. Lock in Low Rates Young

Your age is one of the main factors affecting life insurance rates. When you get pregnant is a great time to get life insurance because you now have more of a need for it than ever before, and you are as young as you will ever be.

If you are in your 20s, 30s, or even 40s and are in good health, and are a non-smoker, you will likely be able to secure very low life insurance rates to protect your young family.

6. Peace of Mind

Despite the fact that this is hard to quantify, peace of mind is one of the greatest things that life insurance provides, especially when you are pregnant or have a young child.

Life insurance helps give pregnant women and new parents the peace of mind of knowing that their child is protected financially in the event of their death.

Can You Get Life Insurance Coverage for Your Baby if You’re Pregnant?

If you take out a life insurance policy while pregnant, you can certainly find one that gives you a rider, or special feature, to add your children to the insurance policy you already have.

In these cases, though, you must wait until the child is born in order to add them. They can typically get coverage until they turn 18. Now, your coverage is probably going to be enough for them, but this is still something to consider.

How Much Coverage Do I Need?

In order to figure out how much coverage you need with your life insurance, start by gathering any important personal financial information that you have so that you can figure out your current income and your debts versus your assets.

After that, estimate what your burial cost will be and how much money your family or your business will need in your absence. As someone who is pregnant, you need to consider the number of years your unborn child will need coverage and the average costs of that coverage for your area.

When figuring out how much life insurance coverage you need as a pregnant woman, you want to think about these 3 factors.

3 Tips to Determine How Much Life Insurance Coverage You Need 

1. Calculate Your Annual Income and Multiply 15-20

As a pregnant mother, you will now be accepting financial support for your child for the first 18 years of their life. On top of that, you may want to plan for college for your child. This should also be factored into the type of life insurance policy you take out as a new parent.

2. Plan For College 

Planning for college is not easy, it’s also not cheap. This is something you want to begin planning for as soon as possible to give your child the best financial resources to follow their aspirations in college if they choose to go. Life insurance is a great way to do this.

3. Factor in Existing Debt 

Like it or not, you probably have debt. As Americans, we each account for an average of nearly $70,000 in debt per person. Wherever your debt stands in relation to this, chances are, you do have debt, no matter the amount.

When considering how much life insurance is right for you while pregnant, you will want to account for your debt in order to protect your family financially.

What Types of Life Insurance Policies Can I Get if I’m Pregnant?

There are generally two categories of life insurance from which to choose: permanent or term.

Learn more about the types of life insurance.

Permanent Life Insurance

Permanent life insurance includes universal and whole life insurance as well as other types of policies. This type of life insurance coverage lasts your whole life (usually through age 101, 112, or 121).

These policies may accumulate cash value on a tax-deferred basis which you can use while you are still alive. This means that the money you put into your policy builds cash value, which is cash that you can borrow without having to pay taxes or interest on it.

This policy is designed to have a level premium with a guaranteed death benefit. It accumulates cash value that you can use to help meet any living needs like buying a house, funding your emergency situations, covering college expenses, or adding to your retirement.

Permanent life insurance can take a variety of forms, such as:

• Universal Life
• Whole Life
• Variable Life
• Indexed Universal Life
• Etc…

All these types of permanent life insurance policies vary in terms of premiums and cash value accumulation. Speak with an agent to learn more today.

The premiums for permanent life insurance are very high compared to term life insurance. For most people, term life is best because it offers protection that can be layered in order to provide income protection and debt relief dynamically as life develops.

You should consider a permanent life insurance policy if:

• You have long-term financial needs
• You like flexibility with your premium payments and your death benefits
• You want a policy that accumulates tax-deferred cash value

Term Life Insurance

Term life insurance will protect you for a specific amount of time, ranging between one and thirty years. It will only pay out the death benefit if you pass away during that time. It is considered a temporary form of life insurance.

Short term, it gives you the greatest level of protection for the lowest premium possible. Therefore, if you are on a tight budget, this can be a great, cost-effective solution. If you know that your financial responsibilities will decrease with time, it might also be a wonderful way to free up your funds.

One of the drawbacks to selecting a term policy is that you never get any of that money back unless you pick a Return of Premium policy or policy rider, and your coverage expires when the term does. Whereas permanent life insurance accumulates cash value over time on top of your lifelong protection.

You should consider term coverage if:

• You have a temporary financial need
• You need large coverage on a tight budget
• You want to use it for specific business needs like executive benefits

How Does Life Insurance Pregnant Women Cost?

The cost of your life insurance policy, regardless of how far along you are in your pregnancy or if you are trying to become pregnant, is going to be based primarily on your age, gender, and health. It will also be based on how much coverage you want and how long the policy is—either term-wise or permanent.

As a healthy, pregnant female, your sample rates for the preferred health category are as follows:

How Do I Find the Best Life Insurance Rates for Pregnant Women?

Different companies charge different rates. So, you need to do some homework on the rates available – get quotes from many companies. Talk to a broker or third party to compare the rates based on your situation.

Give us a call today to speak to an independent life insurance agent who can help you compare life insurance policies from dozens of the best life insurance companies for pregnant women.

They will work with you to determine how much coverage you need, what your budget is, and whether term or permanent is the solution. They can even work with you to discuss riders that can help get life insurance coverage for your children.