Babies are often expensive for creatures that are so small: they need new clothes, bedding, toys once they’re a little more agile, and the time you spend caring for them isn’t spent working, so your bank balance is run down for every day you aren’t in the office.

By posting a photograph of the bill she received after the birth of her second child, Washington Post columnist Elizabeth Bruenig also underscored that in the United States, the care you and your child receive during the delivery also costs money; even though Bruenig is insured, the hospital billed her nearly $8,000. The responses were mixed: many people understandably found the idea of billing people for bringing new life into being abhorrent, but others were defensive — child-rearing was a choice, their argument went, and having children was bound to cost money, so no one should complain that some companies were profiting from the creation of future generations.

Travelling to the United States several years ago, I spent more than twice as much time searching for insurance than booking flights, accommodation, and planning a sightseeing itinerary combined. My friends sorted their insurance quickly and cheaply but finding a company who would insure me for less than the cost of the return flight was a challenge. Since insurance is essentially gambling with risk, the vast majority of companies were unwilling to take a chance on a traveller with a rare genetic condition that causes multiple tumors to grow in my spinal cord and severe, poorly controlled epilepsy. Finally, I found a reasonable quote, but spent a huge amount of time in fear of seizing in public and being rushed to hospital, racking up an enormous bill.