Man charged $4,000 for skin contact with his newborn

A man from the US was charged a whopping $4,000 just for having skin-to-skin contact with his newborn daughter. The bizarre incident was revealed by a TikTok user named Jenny Mukendi (@jandjfamily1).

Mukendi posted a video on her account narrating the incident. She said that the hospital she was admitted to gave them a bill of $28,200, including insurance coverage.

The bill included the room cost, valued at close to $3,700; the epidural, over $17,200; and food, over $170. The skin-to-skin contact for her was free, but her husband, Josh Mukendi, was charged $4,000 for it.

"How is pizza $176, and how do they charge me for weighing my daughter on my own chest?" said Josh in the video, appearing visibly shocked.

A hospital charging a father to touch his own child did not go down well with their followers. One TikTok user wrote: "Charging for skin to skin is the saddest thing I've ever heard."

"I am [so] Glad I'm in the UK because if they charged me skin to skin with my own baby I'd shake hands with everyone," wrote another commenter.

"THEY CHARGE FOR SKIN TO SKIN WITH THE BABY YOU BIRTHED? I invite all of you to Norway/Europe in general," wrote another. The video has been viewed over 6 million times.

This is not the first time that such a bizarre incident has come to light. In 2016, a US man was charged $39.95 for holding his baby right after the child's birth via caesarean section. The incident was reported from Intermountain HealthCare's Utah Valley Hospital.

A spokesperson for the hospital later clarified that the man was not simply charged for holding his baby, but for the cost involved in providing extra care for the baby and the mother after another person was brought into the operating room (OR) after the caesarean delivery.

According to a Forbes report, the US is one of the most expensive places to give birth. A caesarean delivery in the US can cost about $26,000, while a vaginal delivery can cost about $14,800.